Attached: Child Care Subsidy Program
KIDS ARE
PRIORITY ONE COALITION
Live the Promise
April 25, 2007
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Child Care Subsidy Program
Call your Senator
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ACTION NEEDED
Senate Appropriations Committee will most likely vote this week on the budget. They still have not decided how much will go to the Child Care Subsidy.
We know that Senate Appropriations Committee is faced with many difficult choices. The Senators on the committee need to hear from us.
The message: “Please support a 3% increase for the Child Care Subsidy Program.”
In his proposed budget, Governor Douglas recommended a 2% increase in rates for the Child Care Subsidy Program. The House of Representatives approved a 3% increase. We want to make sure the Senate goes along with the House decision and also approves a 3% increase.
If one of your Senators is on this committee, please call him/her right away at the Statehouse at 1-800-322-5616. Leave a message with the Sgt-at-Arms.
Senator Bartlett of
Lamoille
District, Chair
Senator Kitchel of Caledonia District, Vice-Chair
Senator Illuzzi of Essex-Orleans District
Senator Miller of
Chittenden
District
Senator Sears of
Bennington
District
Senator Shumlin of Windham District
Senator Snelling of
Chittenden
District, Clerk
Talking points include:
- The Child Care Subsidy Program is severely under-funded. Reimbursement rates lag far behind actual rates charged. (See the attached fact sheet for details.)
- Everyone loses out when there is such a big gap between reimbursement levels and actual fees charged. More often than not, children end up in lower quality programs, parents have fewer choices, and early childhood educators subsidize our child care system by absorbing the difference between reimbursement rates and actual fees charged.
- The Child Care Subsidy Program is critical to Vermont’s economic prosperity. It allows thousands of low- and moderate-income Vermonters to enter and stay in the workforce—a much smaller investment than paying for public assistance.
For more information, contact
Barbara Postman,
Kids Are Priority One Legislative Director
Voices for Vermont’s Children
(802) 229-6377