Local advocates and experts in early childcare education say funding and staffing shortfalls were only deepened during the pandemic. With federal relief funding set to expire at the end of the month, posing another short-term hurdle, or "cliff," what are the long-term solutions?

Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal is pushing Congress for $16 billion in federal funding through the Child Care Stabilization Act. "Childcare was in crisis even before the pandemic," said Senator Blumenthal on Monday. "But the pandemic has brought it to the brink of collapse." He also highlighted the Child Care for Every Community Act, and the Child Care for Working Families Act.

At the same press conference on Monday, Merrill Gay, Executive Director at Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance, called the upcoming funding cutoff a “predictable calamity."

This hour, we hear from Connecticut Office of Early Childhood Commissioner Beth Bye, and members of the recently-formed Blue Ribbon Panel on Child Care. A new draft of a five-year plan, expected to be finalized by December, outlined possible solutions, including a pay raise.

GUESTS:

• Beth Bye: Commissioner, Connecticut Office of Early Childhood
• Monette Ferguson: Executive Director, Alliance for Community Empowerment in Bridgeport
• Karen Lott: Executive Director, Women’s League Child Development Center in Hartford
• Allyx Schiavone: Executive Director, Friends Center for Children in New Haven
• Jessica Sager: Executive Director, All Our Kin

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