The Empire State Campaign for Child Care, joined by more than 140 organizations around the state, sent a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul, calling on the governor to enact their statewide roadmap to universal child care, New York State Child Care For All.
The letter and its signatories can be found here.
The letter stresses five key elements that must be included in any and all plans for universal child care.
The list of signatories encompasses a broad coalition of stakeholders including nonprofit organizations, child care providers, grassroots organizations and the business community. The signatories come from urban, suburban and rural communities, and are united in the commitment to an equitable, thoughtful way of enacting universal child care in New York State.
“We are incredibly proud of New York State Child Care For All. We’re thrilled to see such a broad constituency embrace and endorse our plan—the only statewide plan that has the buy-in of partners across New York. We stand by our commitment that every family must be served, and every early childhood educator must earn a thriving wage, in every corner of the Empire State, and the rollout to universal child care must prioritize low income families who struggle every day to make ends meet,” said Shoshana Hershkowitz, campaign manager of the Empire State Campaign for Child Care.
“The plan being put forth by the Empire State Campaign for Child Care centers family child care as an essential pillar of early childhood education and calls for immediate and ongoing investment in the early childhood workforce. It ensures that providers are treated with respect and compensated fairly. The plan respects and preserves parent choice across all child care modalities and meets family needs of affordability. We support this plan because it aligns with our mission of uplifting families and the educators who care for them, ensuring dignity, empowerment and equity,” said Gladys Jones, founder and chief executive officer, Early Childhood Educators on the Move.
About the Empire State Campaign for Child Care
The Empire State Campaign for Child Care (ESCCC) is a statewide coalition of parents, child care educators, and advocates who believe that every family in New York State deserves high quality, universal child care and that every child care educator deserves to earn a thriving wage.
The campaign was founded in 2017, and advocates at the state and federal levels for investment in child care that best serves the needs of all of New York’s families and child care educators. Learn more at empirestatechildcare.org.