Clark County is grappling with a child care crisis, along with the rest of the country. We are asking Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, to champion solutions to this crisis and to help working families with her vote in Congress this week.
In Clark County, there are an estimated 17,000 children under age 5 who need child care, yet there are only about 230 child care programs licensed with the capacity to serve 8,600 children. We know that 90 percent of children’s brains develop before they ever set foot in kindergarten, which is why an increase in federal funding to the bipartisan Child Care and Development Block Grant program would help create more high-quality child care spots to help more young brains develop.
Last week Congress took a critical step forward in addressing the child care crisis by proposing a $2.4 billion increase for CCDBG for next year. If enacted, it would bring $38 million in new child care funding to Washington, allowing more access to better care for Washington’s working families. This is a critical step toward the $5 billion in funding that CCDBG needs nationally. We urge Congresswoman Herrera Beutler to support providing these funds to Washington families.
