The legislators pushing child care solutions this session

'The dynamic has shifted.'

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We’ve been hard at work the past couple of months, diving into research from all 58 community colleges and looking forward to the start of the state’s new legislative session.

We published a large piece on why early childhood investments are critical for North Carolina’s economic future. We published a preview of what to expect in early childhood policy this session. And we published a Q&A with Sen. Jim Burgin, R-Harnett, Lee, Sampson, on why he is focused on early childhood as a Christian, conservative lawmaker.

I got the chance to sit down last week with Burgin and the rest of the early childhood caucus leadership: Rep. Ashton Clemmons, D-Guilford; Rep. David Willis, R-Union; and Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, D-Wake. They had spent the previous 36 hours at The Hunt Institute’s Holshouser Legislative Retreat to learn about and discuss a wide array of education issues.

They were all hopeful that early care and education had emerged as a chance for bipartisan problem-solving this session — particularly because of its connection to workforce participation and economic growth.

“What I found encouraging was the way we’ve talked about child care as a workforce and economic development issue,” Chaudhuri said. “… The fact is, we’re a high-growth state. We’ve recruited a lot of companies to the state, but we’re not going to be able to continue to have a prosperous economic development environment without solving the child care issue.”

Willis, who owns and operates a preschool program in Union County, said he believes more and more legislators are hearing from constituents — especially from parents and business owners.

“For the first time, we’ve kind of hit a point where it’s impacting everybody,” he said. “So every legislator across the state, regardless of what district they’re in, they’re feeling it.”

Willis said the most pressing challenge on the ground — and for the legislature — is supporting the early childhood teacher workforce.

“For the longest time, the conversation was, ‘We need to increase the number of seats in the NC Pre-K program and the subsidy programs, because we’ve got too many kids on the waitlist,'” Willis said. “Well, now we’ve got kids on the waitlist, that have the money, but they don’t have a classroom to go to. So in Union County alone, we’ve got two NC Pre-K programs that could be up and running. They just don’t have the teachers. And that’s that’s never happened. The dynamic has shifted, and I think that’s certainly been part of what’s been eye-opening for a lot of folks and, and hopefully will help us have an easier pathway to move legislation forward.”

We’ll be covering the legislature in the coming weeks, as well as on-the-ground stories. Reach out with questions or ideas.