Share this story
This week, the White House and Small Business Administration (SBA) held a roundtable discussion on early childhood education with small business owners, lenders, and resource partners at the White House, including Kate Goodwin, who founded Kate’s Korner Learning Center in Durham.
The roundtable kicks off the Biden-Harris Administration’s “Month of Action on Care” in April.
Last year, President Biden designated April Care Worker Recognition Month, signing a historic Executive Order on Increasing Access to High-Quality Care and Supporting Caregivers.
The roundtable was hosted by by Director of the Gender Policy Council Jennifer Klein, Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden, and Small Business Administrator Isabel Guzman, and included the SBA’s newly announced Child Care Task Force.
As the cabinet-level agency dedicated to supporting small businesses, the SBA plays a critical role in supporting small businesses, like Kate’s Corner.
The following new actions to support small businesses that offer child care for millions of working families were announced at the roundtable, according to a fact sheet released by the White House:
Funding Opportunities to Support Small Businesses in the Child Care Sector. In the coming months, SBA will make available new funding opportunities to support small businesses in the child care sector through SBA’s Women Business Center (WBC) program. WBCs are a part of a national network of entrepreneurship centers designed to assist women in starting and growing small businesses. The additional funds will support the expansion of child care delivery systems, increase child care slots, and improve child care access, affordability, and quality.
Development of a Child Care Guide. SBA announced it will make funding available to create a child care business development guide, which would provide resources on starting and running a business throughout the child care business life cycle, including information on accessing capital, licensing requirements, and tax considerations.
Lender Campaign. SBA is launching a lender campaign to highlight the resources SBA has available to support small, minority-owned, and women-owned businesses, including child care businesses. As part of this campaign, SBA will discuss with stakeholders the potential for additional reforms to support the growth of child care capacity across the country, including the expansion of eligibility to nonprofit child care providers under the signature 7(a) loan program, which supports financing to small businesses for working capital and a range of other uses, and the 504 loan program, which provides financing for major fixed asset purchases.
The announcements made at the roundtable, the fact sheet says, “are part of President Biden’s economic agenda to address challenges in the care economy and answer the call for investments in the fragile child care industry, which faces numerous challenges impacting the country’s child care supply.”
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are committed to addressing the structural challenges within the child care ecosystem, the fact sheet says, including low wages for workers, high costs for families, and the inadequate supply of high-quality care.
“Those interested in starting a child care business — 95% of which are small businesses — often struggle to access credit and find the significant start-up capital necessary to begin operating,” the fact sheet says. “And once up and running, many child care businesses struggle to break even and keep their doors open — as most child care facilities operate on profit margins less than 1%.”
Super proud of you, Kate, and thankful for your leadership in North Carolina and beyond.
