Child care IS infrastructure for Kentucky’s workforce
Support Kentucky's children and working families.
Invest in child care today.
The Kentucky General Assembly has the opportunity to support working families and children by investing in Kentucky’s child care infrastructure. An investment in Kentucky’s 2024 biennial budget for child care and the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) will support families participating in the workforce and provide children with quality early childhood education and ensure he stability of the child care ecosystem in the Commonwealth.
Quality early education increases future success.
Child care is Kentucky's workforce infrastructure.
Quality early learning and care programs have a long-term impact on children and can break the cycle of poverty for multiple generations. Children who experience quality early learning and care programs are 25% more likely to graduate high school. In addition, they are four times more likely to complete a bachelor’s degree or higher and earn up to 25% more in wages as an adult, and more, equating to a 13% return on investment for the initial investment made in quality childhood education, according to economist James Heckman, Nobel Prize Laureate.
Kentucky needs child care investment now.
Child care keeps Kentucky parents working.
For Kentucky to maintain its economic momentum, employers and their businesses require affordable child care. According to the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, a 2022 survey of Kentucky child care providers showed that without state investment, the child care ecosystem would face dire consequences. Child care providers said they would have to take drastic actions, like raising tuition (70%), cutting wages (40%), laying off staff (30%), and even permanently closing their child care centers (20%), further exacerbating an already struggling ecosystem.
Support child care investment.
We need your help now to keep Kentucky competitive.
During this budget session, lawmakers have the opportunity to make a historic investment in child care that will ensure Kentucky can remain competitive, that Kentucky’s lowest-income working families will have continued access to child care, support the child care workforce, and stabilize child care providers. Supporting these key child care priorities will keep Kentucky competitive now and in the future.
