Make Your Voice Heard - Sign On To Ask Congress to Increase Federal Child Care Funding
Kansas Congressional Delegation
We need your help!
Kansas Action for Children is advocating for greater investments in federal child care funding and we need your organization to join us in signing a letter to encourage the Kansas congressional delegation to support the increase.
Please add your organization’s name to the letter to the Kansas Congressional Delegation.
You helped achieve the historic increase in funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) funds in federal fiscal years 2018 and 2019. We need to build off that success and advocate for increased discretionary CCDBG funding in federal fiscal year 2020 so that we can continue to address unmet needs. More funding will mean better access to high-quality, affordable child care for families and better supports for programs and teachers.
To help encourage lawmakers to make this appropriation, KAC is collaborating with our partner child care and education advocacy organizations to gather signatures for a letter to our congressional delegation.
If you are authorized to sign your organization onto this letter, please join us!
We will accept organizations until close of business on Tuesday, February 26th. Your voice matters!
Petition by
To:
Kansas Congressional Delegation
From:
[Your Name]
Dear:
The historic increase in discretionary funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) in FY 2018 and FY 2019 will greatly benefit children and families in our communities. We urge you to build on this progress and address continuing gaps by prioritizing increasing CCDBG funding by an additional $5 billion in the FY 2020 appropriations bill. This funding increase will further expand access to the high-quality child care that allows parents to work, contributes to the well-being of children, and strengthens our economy.
The new funding provided in FY 2018 has already allowed more Kansas families to access high-quality early childhood education, and has increased payment rates to child care providers around the state. It has also enabled the state to comply with new federal guidelines.
However, total funding for child care (including CCDBG funds and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds used for child care) in FY 2018 remained nearly $1 billion short of the total funding level in FY 2001 after adjusting for inflation. In our state, this has meant not every eligible family receives assistance.
To allow for an increase in child care funding, it is essential that you also support an overall increase in the budgetary caps on domestic spending and a proportionate increase in funding to the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education appropriations bill. Such steps are necessary to ensure that increased investments in child care do not come at the expense of other crucial supports for families and children.
We look forward to working with you to advance this investment in child care that is so important to the success of our children, our families, and our country.
Sincerely,