Capitol Perspective/Child Care Funding
A column by State Senator Pat Browne
16th Senatorial District
Each year, the General Assembly spends most of June and –
more recently – the first weeks of July hammering out the
state budget.
While consideration of our $24 billion state budget is a
massive undertaking, it pales in comparison with the
wrangling that takes place over the trillions of dollars
that are allocated by the federal government. During its
extensive budget process, Congress must decide the best ways
to channel that money to meet the needs of the federal
government, while providing funding to the fifty states as
well as numerous other domestic and international groups,
organizations and governments.
That is why my colleague Jane Orie of Allegheny County
and I have introduced legislation strongly urging Congress
to continue its support and increase its funding for child
care services. The federal government currently provides
$4.8 billion dollars annually through a block grant program
to the states for essential child care services. Our bills
also call on Congress to provide $6 billion in new mandatory
child care funds.
This additional funding was approved by the U.S. Senate's
Finance Committee on March 9 but is still awaiting a final
vote by the full Senate. If this important measure comes to
the floor, we hope that it will see the same success that it
did last year when it was approved by a solid 78-20
majority.
Overall, Pennsylvania currently spends about $512 million
for child care programs. The proposed $6 billion increase in
funding would mean an additional $200 million to
Pennsylvania over the five-year life of the federal
legislation. Needless to say, this additional money would be
a major boost in our effort to help families transition from
the welfare roll to the payroll.
Pennsylvania is already struggling to meet the child care
needs of working families. Only one in four eligible
families is receiving child care assistance in the state and
a majority of Pennsylvania's counties have or have had a
waiting list for child care services during the past two
years. In fact, 2,600 children were on the waiting list for
child care services in March.
Finding affordable child care is undoubtedly one of the
largest hurdles that families must overcome in their efforts
to move beyond welfare, and unfortunately, it is all too
often a stumbling block that prevents adults from becoming
productive members of our society.
What's worse, if parents can't work and are unable to
succeed in life, then that raises the bar against their
children and they can easily fall behind as well and become
enmeshed in a vicious cycle of dependency and deprivation.
Senators Santorum and Specter have already voted in favor
of providing the additional money needed to boost child care
efforts in the states and help us work with families and
employers to break that vicious cycle.
Now, we are calling for action, for Congress to act in a
unified, bi-partisan manner, to give the states the
additional resources that will help families today and give
hope to all Pennsylvania children for a brighter future.
