Employee Report
Gov. Josh Stein visited Kate’s Kate Learning Center in Durham on Monday to announce the establishment of a new task force on child care and early education.
this Executive Order to Form a Bipartisan Contingent Its purpose is to “check out opportunities, barriers, and policy solutions to expand access, affordable and high-quality child care and early education options for families with young children in North Carolina.”
“I’m honored that Gov. Rachel Hunt and Sen. Jim Burgin agreed to jointly serve on the task force and prioritize this emergency,” Stan said. “They will join with a team of care providers, lawmakers, business leaders, parents, community partners and industry experts to find out how we invest in caregivers for parents and children.”
Democrat Stein appointed Hunter and Democrats Republican Senator Birkin Co-Chair Task Force. Two elected officials have previously advocated child care solutions in North Carolina.
Birkin is Press release from the Governor’s Office. “I’m honored to be co-chaired with Lieutenant Hunt and Lieutenant Hunt to ensure North Carolina is the best state to build a family.”
Stan said the task force will release an interim report in June and a stronger report by the end of the year.
Stein also said that his budget proposals planned to be released this month will include “large investments in paying more to providers, improving the quality of the program and increasing childcare subsidy rates, including rural communities.”
Opportunities, obstacles and policy solutions
Stein identified several “interlocking issues” facing North Carolina’s early care and learning — not enough to meet demand, the high cost of available slot machines, and the low wages for early childhood educators.
“At the moment, we only have one parenting space that needs a family,” Stan said. “Moms found out that they were pregnant and immediately had to jump to the waiting list, hoping that she would be open in time when she went back to work.”
Stein went on to say that even if the family did find child care, it wouldn’t be able to afford it.
“The average cost of baby care in North Carolina is $12,000 [annually]. It’s not just about no tuition,” Stan said. “Economists say parenting can only make up 7% of household income, but one in five households must pay more than that. ”
Even with high-quality nursing tuition fees, early childhood educators are too low to make teachers flourish, Stan said.
“About 40% of parenting staff are on some form of public assistance,” Stan said. “We don’t have enough people to be nurseries because of the lower salary, so we don’t have enough teachers to equip the classroom, which means we don’t have enough classrooms to provide slot machines for kids in North Carolina.”
Stein calls this a “vicious cycle” that affects every North Carolina in every North Carolina, whether they have children or not, because it keeps parents who want to work away from the workforce.
“But that should be an option,” Stan said. “Parents shouldn’t be pushed out of the workforce because they can afford to work.”
He highlighted the important role of state governments and corporate communities in developing policy solutions for these issues.
“When we invest in childcare, our entire society benefits,” Stan said. “Parents continue to work hard and continue to build their careers, we don’t see signs of openings or helping in our small business stores, and most importantly, our children have access to a safe, nurturing and supportive environment where they can learn and thrive during those years – someone who will shape their educational trajectory.”
Accessible, affordable and high-quality childcare services
“I want to prove that the most important factor in healing our early childhood ecosystem is the healing around the workforce,” founder Kate Goodwin said in an introductory speech welcoming the governor at Kate’s Korner Learning Center.
“This is my purpose in early childhood education: to make sure that every time we spend hours teaching, fostering, inspiring our next generation of educators has their own quality of life and are seen, heard and appreciated,” Goodwin said.
Goodwin took him to the center before the announcement of the Governor’s Task Force.
He visited a classroom where the two-year-old just learned all about the letter “I” and sang alphabet songs for him. In another classroom, he read a book to four-year-olds who added the book to Lieutenant Hunter’s floor. Stan’s youngest daughter, Leah, accompanied him on a visit as she work
During the event, Goodwin said Kate Kanter’s teachers were livable wages, received health insurance, had four days of work week, and participated in mental health and wellness programs, as well as ongoing professional development opportunities.
When the media asked Stein what it would take to replicate Kate’s Kate model in the state around the state, he said: “It will require investment and you have to figure out the most efficient way to collect resources to achieve this.”
So far, two well-known bills have been proposed in this legislative session that are directly related to early care and learning.
Housing Act 115, Childcare facilities tax exemptionproperty taxes will be exempted from all child care institutions. Senate Bill 98, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Fundinga $1.5 million duplicate funding will be provided for the literacy program, which will mail appropriate books to children who signed to attend.
In addition, Lieutenant Hunter announced she “North Carolina is ready for the future” policy planwhich prioritizes community colleges, expanding K-12 career preparation programs, and child care and affordability.
“For too many parents, child care costs are now higher than their rent,” Hunter said on Monday. “Our country fails More than $5 billion per year In economic activities, the challenges faced by children’s accessibility and affordability. ”
This economic impact is at the heart of the remarks made by Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley.
“This is We only know one economic issue with further investment and further creativity, and we can only further expand the opportunity of North Carolina becoming the number one state in business. ”
Stein said childcare and early childhood education “is the best investment we can make as a nation,” and announced the task force announcement at Kate’s Korner.
It works for kids because they learn skills. We were just there watching two-year-olds start learning their letters. It’s really impressive. It also works for parents because it gives them peace of mind because their children are well cared for when they go to work and at a reasonable price. Of course, it is useful for the economy and for businesses because it can keep productive people working and thus help develop this economy.
So we want people, North Carolina parents, to know that we recognize this is an urgent issue. I’m creating a working group of leaders on both sides so that we can determine solutions for both of us to solve this problem once and for all. –Governor Josh Stein
More information about Kate’s Kona
Kate Goodwin wants to heal childcare services
NC’s Kate Goodwin attends the White House’s Early Childhood Education Roundtable
Parenting’s “authorization model” takes root in Durham
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