MIDDLEBURY, Vt. (WCAX) – Is last year’s multi-million investment in Vermont child care paying off? Advocacy groups say more families are accessing child care but they say the system is still falling short and may require another infusion of public dollars.
The Mary Johnson Children’s Center has been a staple in Middlebury for over half a century, caring for young kids of college employees and others in town.
“Having high-quality early educators is a really important piece to having healthy children,” said Kristen Dunne, the center’s director.
Child care providers for years have faced a shortage of workers, leading to rising costs and fewer slots for kids. Lawmakers last year overrode Governor Scott’s veto on a 0.44 percent payroll tax, giving a $120 million boost to providers and families.
“We’ve had more child care programs open than close in the first two quarters of this year. I want to lean on that for a second. It shows how deep this crisis is that we’re working to solve and we’re finally turning a corner,” said Aly Richards with the group Let’s Grow Kids.
A group of lawmakers Wednesday toured the Mary Johnson center, where even now there are over 80 families on the infant wait list caused, in part, because of staffing challenges.
On average, child care workers are paid $14 an hour. Advocates say more needs to be done to expand wages, as well as establishing — and funding — a formal profession of early educators. It’s something that staff at Mary Johnson have had access to
“I think it’s long-standing beliefs in child care and the value of childcare and how it is seen as a daycare versus an early education program.’))
In January, a new crop of lawmakers will head back to the Statehouse to deal with flooding, education finance reform, and other competing interests.
Vermont House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, says she needs to hear from more child care providers before committing to new taxes. “When we get back to the legislative session, we have a lot of work to do to figure out how Vermonters are doing coming back from the floods. We have a crisis in our health care system. We have a lot to work on,” she said.
It’s not clear how much more money would be needed to create more child care positions. At the same time, a report on how Vermont could roll out a publicly funded and administered universal pre-kindergarten system is due at the end of the year.