As federal funding from the Covid-19 pandemic will end in 2024, Texas childcare advocates have been at the Texas Legislature advocating for funding from the state to keep childcare centers and family care centers, running. They want the Legislature to include “bedrock child care funding in the state budget.” 

A letter signed by 32 Texas organizations, most of which are childcare and family care organizations, lays out the need and recommendation for funding from the state. The coalition argues, “Over the past two years, the childcare situation has gone from bad to worse. As more child care providers close and classrooms sit empty due to a lack of teachers, some parents cannot work, and businesses throughout the economy cannot hire and retain employees.”

There is a staffing crisis in the childcare provider workforce as they only average $12 an hour with little to no benefits. Plus, if less funding is given to childcare providers, then the costs for parents go up, or they have to take time away from work. 

Texas childcare and family care organizations are asking the state to supplement state funding with federal funding. Lots of childcare providers are expected to close down once the federal funds from Covid relief end. The goal would be to keep the cost of childcare down for families who will be able to focus on work, and also keep childcare providers open when federal funding runs down.

Over the last several years Texas has already lost 27% of its childcare facilities and there is a fear that the growing population in Texas might break the already suffering childcare centers. That means more families who need child care, which means fewer services to take care of them. That means they become more expensive, have pay cuts for employees, and in some cases, it means that parents are unable to focus on their job so they can take care of the children.

The state’s childcare and family care organizations are not ambiguous in their demands. They specified a dollar amount and what the purposes for that dollar amount would be. According to KERA news, childcare providers, advocates, and business leaders, determined that $2.29 billion is what would need to be required in the state’s budget to keep childcare providers from raising costs, cutting staff, or closing entirely. 

Texans Care for Children states that “Many children — especially from families with fewer resources — end up in lower-quality child care during the critical early years of brain development and miss the opportunity to develop the social and learning skills they will need to succeed in school.”

The Texas Association for the Education of Young Children reports that once federal funding ends, the majority of childcare providers will have to raise tuition, around half say they will have to cut wages, 42% say they will lose staff, and 44% say they might close down within the next year. They say that the requested $2.29 billion in funding from the state would assist with operational and staffing costs. $1.16 billion would go to licensed childcare providers and registered family care centers for operational costs. The other $1.13 billion, they advocate, should go towards increasing wages amongst childcare workers from $12 an hour to $15. Additionally, the funding would go towards recruitment and retention stipends for early childhood educators.