“North Carolina’s moms applaud the budget proposal Governor Cooper released today because it will boost North Carolina’s kids, families, businesses, and our economy. We are particularly grateful for Governor Cooper’s commitment to ensuring every child in North Carolina has access to a sound basic education, beginning in early childhood. 

“We are thrilled to see critical investments that will expand access to high-quality early childhood education, increase the number of pre-K slots, strengthen the early childhood workforce and improve pay for providers. We also applaud measures to create child care centers at community colleges, improve subsidy reimbursement rates for programs, strengthen early intervention services for children with developmental delays and other medical needs, and stabilize child care funding so providers don’t face a funding cliff. All of these investments are essential to addressing our state’s child care crisis, which is causing devastating harm to families and our economy.

“Every parent should be able to find and afford the high-quality child care they need to work, every child deserves a strong start to their education, and everyone teaching and caring for our state’s youngest kids should be paid a family-sustaining wage with good benefits. Our state’s child care system was in crisis before COVID and has been pushed to the brink during the pandemic. The early childhood investments included in Governor Cooper’s budget proposal are urgently needed and critical to our state’s success. Moms will urge our state legislators to support it.”