Gillibrand discusses bill to address shortage of affordable child care

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D–N.Y.) says the Child Care Workforce and Facilities Act would address the shortage of affordable child care and qualified child-care professionals. The proposed measure would provide “competitive” workforce-development grants and facilities grants to states, per an announcement from her office. Gillibrand on Jan. 23 held a virtual press conference to discuss the legislation to address the nationwide shortage of affordable child care. “Access to quality, affordable child care is a necessity for working parents, but a dire shortage of facilities and workers has made it inaccessible for millions of New Yorkers,” Gillibrand said. “I’m proud to introduce this bipartisan legislation to help recruit, train, and retain child care workers and to build or expand child care facilities in communities that need them. I am committed to working across the aisle to get this done.” Nearly two-thirds of New Yorkers live in communities that lack adequate access to child care, a share higher than in all but four states, per Gillibrand’s office. The New York lawmaker’s bill would provide $100 million in federal grant funding over five years for states to build or expand child-care facilities and to help train a “robust” child-care workforce. Recipients could use flexible workforce-development grants for a wide range of job-training activities, such as offering scholarships or tuition subsidies; paying for the purchase of textbooks, equipment or other required educational materials; or covering other education and referral costs necessary to increase labor participation in the state’s child-care sector. Facilities grants would fund the construction, expansion, or renovation of child-care facilities. Prioritized projects would be ones that expand access to child care in “child care deserts,” which Gillibrand’s office describes as areas where the number of children under the age of five is more than three times the number of slots with local child-care providers who are licensed by the state. Under this definition, 64 percent of New Yorkers live in a child-care desert, including 73 percent of those in rural areas. Herkimer, Lewis, Wyoming, Oswego, and Jefferson counties “face especially extreme shortages,” per Gillibrand’s office. The legislation is led by U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D–Minnesota) and Dan Sullivan (R–Alaska) and cosponsored by Senators Angus King (I–Maine.), Jeff Merkley (D–Oregon), Jeanne Shaheen (D–New Hampshire), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D–Rhode Island).