Some 200 early childhood education advocates from 35 states have lobbied members of Congress for additional funding. Included in that group were a professor and student from Berea College.
Professor Cindy McGaha with Child and Family Studies and Berea student Danielle Woods participated in this week’s Save the Children Action Network Advocacy Summit. McGaha said 50 percent of Kentucky children live in what’s called a childcare desert where there are three children for every childcare slot. “The idea of this legislation would be to expand those childcare facilities and train providers to give our children in Kentucky access to high-quality childcare,” noted McGaha.
The Save the Children Action Advocacy event included two days of training and meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. McGaha says they lobbied for $100 million over five years to distribute to states. “That’s going to be an investment our future workforce, but also in our current workforce because families are going to be able to go to work, knowing their children are in high-quality settings,” said McGaha.
McGaha says the money could be used to train early childhood educators and support improvement of facilities. The Berea College professor says votes on the legislation are pending in both the House and Senate. Kentucky would be in the running for a portion of the $100 million appropriation.
