Pennsylvania’s children thrive when they have access to high-quality, publicly funded early care and education services.  Child care affordability programs like Child Care Works and pre-k programs like Pre-K Counts provide children and families with the resources necessary to succeed later in life and to better afford the cost. They hire trained teachers who provide safe and nurturing classrooms, social-emotional growth, language development, and early literacy skills.
Pennsylvania’s coordinated early care and education system enables parents to work with confidence that their children receive high-quality early learning services. Seventy-two percent of Pennsylvania families with children under 6 years old have all available caregivers in the workforce. In order to negate the nearly $6.5 billion in annual losses to Pennsylvania’s economy due to a lack of access to early care and education, Pennsylvania’s subsidized child care and pre-k programs must be made available to more families.
Pre-K Counts provides free, high-quality preschool for children aged 3 to 5 who live in households earning up to 300% of the federal poverty level ($96,450 annually for a family of four). Child Care Works is the commonwealth’s subsidized child care program that helps families earning up to 200% of the federal poverty level ($66,000 annually for a family of four) pay for child care; Pennsylvania allocated funding in recent years to allow families making above 200% the Federal Poverty Income Guideline (FPIG) to remain in the program until they reach 300% ($99,000 annually for a family of four), therefore allowing the family to ease out of the program and prepare to take on the full cost of care.  
Families in the commonwealth are facing an affordability crisis; the cost to raise a family is increasing beyond the pace of wage growth. As the cost of living continues to rise, families are working to make do with less – burdening Pennsylvania’s economy from all sides. I will be introducing legislation in the near future to lessen this burden by increasing family eligibility for both state-funded early learning programs up to 400% of the federal poverty level.
Please join me in co-sponsoring this legislation to allow more families in Pennsylvania to succeed by expanding eligibility for Pre-K Counts and Child Care Works.