OPINION PAGES
Lancaster Online: LTE: Child care center suffering greatly
Our Star-4 child care facility closed on March 14. In that moment, I stopped serving our 149 families and their children. I had to lay off 20 employees. The majority of my families do not participate in child care subsidy to help pay for the cost of their care. Instead they pay out of pocket.
Unionville Times: LTE: Childcare Centers Will Need Help to Reopen Safely
Our number one priority has always been to keep the children, families, and teachers safe and that is even more in the forefront during these times. We are dedicated to serving our community, but really need support from the state and federal government to do this. Without a safe, high quality Early Learning Center for children to attend, there will be no true economic recovery.
University City Review: OpEd: Early childhood providers navigate this crisis
The extended closure of early childhood centers is pushing many centers out of business forever, and those of us who manage to weather this closure with the help of donations, the Paycheck protection program, or state support, are afraid that the cost of reopening with new requirements and decreased enrollment will put us out of business. If we manage to get through this extended closure, we also know that we will need support, innovation, and a whole new way of working to reopen again. As we watch the changing CDC guidelines for childcare centers open right now and listen to our peers operating to serve the essential workforce, it is very clear that reopening will be another crisis for us to navigate.
Lehigh Valley: LTE: Reopening child care centers will be difficult for owners
Now, more than a decade later, being able to reopen after this health crisis hinges on my 15 employees and the parents of 85 children feeling comfortable returning to work in a post-COVID-19 world.
Lehigh Valley Live: LTE: Gov. Wolf’s ‘pay them more’ comment insensitive to small business owners
The frustration comes when Gov. Wolf says, “If you want your staff to come back, just pay them more.” I would love to, governor, but where are we supposed to get that money when subsidy reimbursement rates are not increased for child care centers? Or when private-pay families would have to be charged more, yet many of them are now unemployed, and therefore do not need child care?
Express-Times: LTE: Many child care centers will need government help to reopen
In March, because of COVID-19, I closed my doors, and like other small business owners, I’m continuing to pay rent, utilities and insurance on an empty building. I’m currently working on achieving a STAR 3 rating, which designates high-quality child care in Pennsylvania. Being able to choose a high-quality site is what families deserve, now more than ever, when they are able to safely return to work.
Reading Eagle: LTE: Child care centers crucial to reviving our economy
I’m the owner of Tiny Thinkers Academy, a child care center in Blandon. Prior to our doors shutting in mid-March because of COVID-19, we cared for 63 children ages 6 weeks to sixth grade and employed 23 staff members. We opened our doors in June 2018. This shutdown has been extremely difficult because we haven’t even turned a profit yet due to startup loans.
Observer-Reporter: LTE: Pa’s child care providers must be saved
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, many groups cautioned about the lack of affordable, high-quality child care for Pennsylvania’s working families and the impact on our economy. When families can’t find child care or afford it, that serves as a barrier to employment. Groups like the Pennsylvania Early Learning Investment Commission and ReadyNation estimated that the economic impact of insufficient infant / toddler child-care cost our commonwealth $2.5 billion annually. In short, the economy depends on working families and working families depend on child care.
PennLive: OpEd: Frontline workers in the coronavirus need dependable child care
The current COVID-19 crisis is requiring unprecedented action by both the public and private sectors to not only support our front line workers leading the public health response, but also to support those employees that continue to provide essential, often behind the scenes, services to our communities.
Express-Times: LTE: Closed child-care services need support to get through COVID-19 crisis
My business partner and I have owned and operated The Children’s Garden for 16 years. Since this time we’ve achieved and maintained a Star 3 rating, which designates high-quality child care in Pennsylvania. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, like so many of my colleagues in early learning who are also small business owners, we’ve had to close our child care center.
