[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 72 (Friday, April 28, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H2103]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              QUALITY EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION IS NEEDED

  (Ms. WILD asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. WILD. Mr. Speaker, I am a mother myself. My children are now 27 
and 30 years old, but I distinctly remember how challenging it was to 
have children in a two-parent working family.
  I was a lawyer before I came to Congress, and I distinctly remember 
the panic when I had to bring my very active toddler son to court with 
me because his preschool was suddenly closed.
  I really feel for people who have ongoing issues finding affordable, 
reliable childcare.
  More than 38,000 children in Pennsylvania are waitlisted; 1,600 
classrooms have closed; and hundreds of childcare positions remain 
unfilled. In my district in the Lehigh Valley, more than 1,500 children 
are waitlisted, and Carbon County is classified as a childcare desert.
  The childcare crisis isn't just hard on parents. It is hard on 
childcare providers, too. Early childcare workers in my district make 
just $28,000 to $32,000 compared with their elementary school peers 
making $52,000.
  The Childcare for Working Families Act introduced yesterday on a 
bicameral basis would help open more care providers and lower costs for 
parties, capping costs at 7 percent of a family's income.
  Putting money back in parents' pockets, raising wages for hardworking 
care providers, and giving kids more quality early childhood 
education--that is working for people.

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