By Beth Brelje
Reading Eagle

It is budget season in Harrisburg and while lawmakers set spending priorities, advocates for many causes are squeaking for more money.

Start Strong PA, as a coalition of early childhood advocacy groups is known, was one among them last week. The nonprofit group led a press conference Tuesday seeking additional money to expand Child Care Works, the state's subsidized child care program that offers subsidies toward free and low-cost child care for low income workers.

By Eric Scicchitano
The Daily Item

It's more expensive to send a child to day care than it is to pay the cost of tuition at a state system university.

Pennsylvanians pay on average $10,681 annually for full-time care at child care centers and $8,161 at in-home settings for children from newborns through preschool, according to data collected in 2017 by Child Care Aware of America, the latest available from the nonprofit advocacy group.