EXCERPT FROM: Hartford Courant
By CT Early Childhood Alliance
Child care can be one of the most expensive items in a parent's budget, but it is also one of the most important. Not only does child care allow parents to go to work, but a high-quality early learning environment can contribute enormously to the healthy development - language, behavioral, academic and social development - of young children.
Connecticut's Care4Kids program, a child care subsidy for working parents, helps parents with the cost of child care, but the state budget crisis has many parents and child care programs worried about possible cuts.
On April 14, Hartford parents and child care providers spoke with the most influential member of Connecticut's House of Representatives, Speaker of the House Chris Donovan, and members of the legislature about the topic of child care. Donovan, Rep. Diana Urban, Rep. Cathy Abercrombie and Rep, Beth Bye traveled to the Women's League Child Development Center on Main Street in Hartford to hear their concerns.
Parent Della Fouthergill, who relies on Care4Kids to help subsidize the cost of child care, and coincidently, also works for the Care4Kids program, urged Donovan and the other legislators in attendance to keep the program funded.
"When the program closed for six months last year due to lack of funds, I was one of the people answering the phones," Fouthergill said. "Parents were forced to leave their jobs because they could not afford child care. It was heartbreaking."
"What happens when there is fickle, unsteady funding for early childhood education?" asked Iris Rich, director of the center. "Programs close. Parents cannot work. Children are left with unqualified caregivers. Teachers become unemployed."