This legislative session was dominated by the decision not to reopen the budget. That meant that any bills that passed were stripped of anything that would cost money. For example, the bill that proposed to establish an early childhood fund at the Treasurer’s office was stripped of the $100 million intended to seed it. In the case of a bill, which among other things merges four different funding streams for Early Care and Education into a new Early Start Program, the effective date was pushed out to July 1, 2025 – so it will impact the next two-year budget, not the current one.
The one exception to leaving the budget alone was a reallocation of federal ARPA funds that have to be allocated by the end of 2024.
School Meals For All, which proposed to continue free, healthy school breakfasts for all Connecticut students, received some one-time funding, and Care4Kids, CT’s child care subsidy program, administered by United Way of Connecticut 211 Child Care, received $18.8 million more. That was 50% more than the Governor requested in his proposed budget adjustments. The additional funding will make it possible to reduce the Care4Kids waitlist – and potentially raise the income limit for eligible families!
Another potentially big change for Care4Kids down the road was the addition of a new eligibility category for children on Medicaid (Husky). The way the law was previously written, families in this category were last in line for a child care subsidy. However, they will remain on the waitlist until enough additional funding is secured.
These are both wins for ALICE!
The CT Child Tax Credit is unfinished business and on the list for next year.
In the next session, we need to tackle the question of how we make the investments needed to make quality child care affordable for the substantial portion of the population who are priced out of the market or struggling to pay for care in order to work.
In my ideal world, we would make it much easier for families to raise children in the state. There would be more affordable housing for families in high opportunity areas, and parents would have their choice of several great options for early care and education, all of which would be either free, like public schools, or heavily subsidized, like the Canadian $10 a day child care. Not only would these be great places for children, but also hubs of information and parenting support for families. Early educators would be recognized for the important work they do and be compensated on par with public school staff.
