Cuts to Child Care – Breaking Hearts and Pocketbooks
The child care bills are too damn high! Last year, MomsRising member Callie in Bothell paid a shocking $60,421 for child care – and that is sadly all too common. That math isn’t math-ing in this economy.
Washington lawmakers are sitting down and considering massive budget cuts to our state’s child care and early learning programs while families are making very difficult budget decisions at our own kitchen tables.
How much per month do you pay for child care or after-school care?
With Valentine’s Day around the corner, the MomsRising team here in Washington State is planning to deliver your child care receipts, along with those of hundreds of other families across the state, directly to lawmakers in Olympia with a clear message: Cuts to Child Care Are Breaking our Hearts and Pocketbooks. STOP the Cuts!
Why do they need to see our child care receipts in Olympia right now? As Washington faces a budget crisis, lawmakers are considering budget cuts that would roll back decades of progress on child care, making it harder for ALL families to afford child care, whether you receive a subsidy or not. [
Right now, the Governor’s budget proposal includes $322,000,000.00 (yes, $332 MILLION) in cuts to child care and early learning. Taken altogether, the Governor and state legislators are considering a budget measure that would amount to early learning shouldering 40% of the budget cuts when early learning takes up just 1% of our total state budget!
When the state cuts investments to child care, it’s parents and providers who have to foot the bill for the difference.
Enter your monthly child care costs here and we’ll deliver the receipt to your state lawmakers!
Let’s be real: Chocolate and flowers for Valentine’s Day are nice, but child care would be even sweeter.
Families like yours and mine have the receipts: the cost for child care is too damn high and we need our state to protect investments in child care, not make deep cuts into the budgets of real, hardworking families across our state.
Help us show Washington State legislators the (child care) receipts and tell them how much child care costs your family each month.
*** We’ll put all the numbers together on one giant, long receipt to show legislators in Olympia just how much families are paying and how much is at stake this budget season! And, don’t worry, your personal information will not be shared!
It’s time for legislators, who work on behalf of all of us, to understand the kitchen table budget decisions real Washingtonians are facing as we juggle housing, food, transportation, and healthcare costs ON TOP of heart-and-budget breaking child care costs.
They can’t hide from the real numbers. Balancing the state budget on the backs of children and families is no longer an option.
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