Gov. Josh Shapiro’s latest state budget proposal lays out a sweeping economic plan, and education advocates say it maintains a strong focus on fixing Pennsylvania’s child-care staffing crisis.
Kari King , president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, said her group and the Early Learning Pennsylvania coalition are encouraged by the proposal, which includes a $10 million increase for child-care worker recruitment and retention. She said more funding will help improve pay for providers and strengthen the early-education workforce across Pennsylvania.
“Child care is really the workforce behind the workforce,” she said. “There’s a lot of turnover, low pay in child care, and so really to kind of stem that problem, help families be able to go to work, to make sure that those classrooms are open, we see this additional $10 million as a step in that direction.”
King said another bright spot in the governor’s budget is more support for pre-K programs, including a $7.5 million boost for Pre-K Counts and $2 million for Head Start.
Shapiro’s plan is already getting some pushback from Republican lawmakers who say it’s too expensive.