Tell Your Lawmakers to Fund Child Care in 2025
Have you struggled to find affordable, quality child care? It’s a challenge for many families in our state, and it’s only getting harder.
There are more than 180,000 children in Connecticut under the age of 5. They need stable relationships with child care providers you can trust. But when child care eats up most of a paycheck, parents are making a tough decision between stepping away from their work and paying the hefty price for care.
There’s hope for 2025. Gov. Ned Lamont and some state legislators have signaled that they are open to making child care more accessible. Our government is also sitting on a massive surplus that could be used to fund child care subsidies and other initiatives to make the state more affordable for hardworking families. But, our lawmakers need to be pushed to make it happen. Email your legislators now to tell them to fund child care in 2025.
Why is this needed?
Families deserve access to safe, quality child care. Parents need peace of mind about who is watching their children, and children deserve the best start in life.
Parents can’t afford child care. It costs nearly $13,000 per child per year for infant child care in Connecticut, a price that’s out of reach for many families. Connecticut is already in a cost-of-living crisis as rent, utilities, and groceries become more and more expensive. We can’t afford to keep pushing off solutions to make child care accessible and affordable.
It’s hard to find an open slot. It’s estimated that 44% of people in Connecticut live in a child care desert, leading to long waitlists and fewer options. It’s difficult enough to find quality care for one child, let alone two or three.
Quality care helps children succeed. Children who are enrolled in high-quality early childhood education are better prepared for when they start school. Research has shown that they enter school with higher social-emotional development, and that quality early education can close the performance gap for low-income and dual-language children.
Providers struggle to make ends meet. Connecticut’s child care system happens on the back of low-income workers. On average, a child care worker in Connecticut earns $15.34 an hour – less than some dog walkers. That’s not a sustainable career. As the cost of living increases, child care providers are faced with the tough decision to leave behind the career they love in exchange for one that can pay the bills. This leads to fewer spots for kids and closed child care centers, making it harder for parents to find quality care.
Child care helps our economy. One in five parents have quit a job or been fired due to child care problems, with women facing more consequences than men. Research estimates that 15,000 working moms can join the workforce if our legislators fully fund early childhood education. Another 7,000 working parents can stay employed if they’re able to keep access to their existing providers.
This campaign is an initiative by the Connecticut Project Action Fund, a non-partisan 501(c)4 non-profit organization that mobilizes people and partners to advocate for solutions that better the lives of Connecticut's working families.