Childcare supports shortfall in protest funding

By Jennifer Fernandez and Grace Vitaglione

RALEIGH — Emma Biggs walked into the legislative building on June 26 knowing she would likely be arrested for protesting.

She has been part of a contingent of child care advocates who have been showing up regularly in Raleigh since the North Carolina General Assembly’s short work session began in April. They implored lawmakers to continue the level of funding the centers received from the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic, which helped them pay teachers more through raises or bonuses. With those dollars, some centers have even been able to offer benefits — often for the first time.

On Wednesday morning, her voice joined those of other protesters who stood arm-in-arm outside the gleaming brass doors of the state Senate as they practiced nonviolent civil disobedience techniques used by previous generations to fight for civil rights.

As NC General Assembly police officers led her away with her hands bound in zip ties, Biggs continued to sing a variation of the spiritual “Woke Up This Mornin’ with my Mind Stayed on Jesus.” She replaced the word “Jesus” with “babysitting.”

“To me, it was totally worth it,” Biggs said Wednesday night after he was arraigned at the Wake County Justice Center along with seven other protesters who were arrested. Her next court date is July 31.

“We knew we had to take bold action today because we only have a few days left of this federal funding and we needed them to hear our voices,” said Biggs, director of Pathway Preschool Center in Charlotte.

Short term fix

The state Senate and House of Representatives have proposed spending plans that would extend about $135 million to child care providers, an amount that would only take them about nine months from the July 1 start state fiscal year.

However, the budget process is deadlocked. Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Eden) and House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Kings Mountain) each say they don’t expect to hear each other’s versions of the budget bills.

The potential relief for child care centers came with language House members inserted into Senate Bill 357 that would extend about $35 million to keep child care providers afloat for the first quarter of the fiscal year, but those funds would only last until around October 1. .

Rep. Donny Lambeth (R-Winston Salem) said on the House floor that the funding is a temporary fix “with the hope and expectation that we’ll be back here sometime before the fund runs out.”

Moore and Berger said they will call lawmakers back for a week of work in late September.

Lambeth told NC Health News that the Senate has not made any commitment to pass the bill, but is optimistic because their budget also funds child care providers.

Advocates have pushed for about $180 million to meet the needs of child welfare agencies throughout the coming year.

During a press conference earlier in the day, MomsRising’s Beth Messersmith said that while lawmakers said they would return in September, it would be too late.

“The childcare teachers don’t get to go home at the end of the day before they finish their work,” she said. “Legislators in this building should not go home before they finish their job.”

Advocates for Head Start, a federally funded preschool program, also came to the legislative building to support expanding child care funding.

Lobbyist Christy Jones said Head Start programs partner with child care centers that may have to close if funding doesn’t materialize, meaning those Head Start programs would also lose children.

“Bad Businesses”

A survey of child care centers released in March shows that without additional government funding, centers can expect to lose teachers, close classrooms, raise tuition and fees, or some combination of these measures.

“Allowing child care funding to expire and centers to close is bad business,” said Davina Boldin-Woods, director of First Presbyterian Child Development Center in Burlington.

“It’s bad for our children. It’s bad for our families. It’s bad for companies and businesses. It’s bad for the economy and the future of North Carolina,” she said.

Lack of child care costs North Carolina $5.65 billion in lost economic activity annually, according to a report commissioned by the US and NC Chambers of Commerce Foundations in partnership with the advocacy group NC Child.

The report, released earlier this month, also found that 35 percent of parents who experienced interruptions in their work in the past year reported leaving the workforce as a direct result of childcare issues. And 15% of working parents report that they plan to leave the workforce in the next 12 months due to childcare issues.

Child care advocates warn that these problems will intensify if there is no additional support to prevent centers from closing, reducing staff, combining classrooms or raising prices.

Tuition will go up and quality will go down, Boldin-Woods said. She said her center is not considering combining classrooms, but her board of directors is considering raising tuition and making adjustments to salaries and benefits to save money.

Center directors in her area held a regular meeting Monday night where they received a legislative update. A comment from a fellow principal stuck with her, Boldin-Woods said.

“Legislators need to leave the games up to the kids,” she said. “They have to get to work and they can’t leave the table until they’ve made a happy plate,” meaning they’ve vacated their work plate.

Continuous pressure

Sandy Weathersbee, owner of Providence Preparatory School in Charlotte, doesn’t expect a resolution this session.

“There seems to be so much distance between them,” he said of the two chambers of the General Assembly. “I just haven’t been able to see much progress.”

While he believes there is “a lot of positive momentum around how to solve this problem,” he doesn’t expect it to be solved this year or next year.

Biggs and other child advocates plan to continue showing up at the legislative building even after lawmakers leave for a break.

“We can’t take two or three months off,” she said. “We can’t go on vacation for two or three months. Our families can hardly wait two to three months.”

She encouraged supporters to reach out to lawmakers.

“Show up at their offices to let them know we need them to support childcare,” she said. “We can put pressure on them.”

If that initial tranche of funding receives final approval, that would be a good start, Biggs said.

“But we need them to fill that budget and boldly invest in childcare when the budget is done,” she said.