A group of early education advocates and child-care providers are standing behind Gov. Peter Shumlin’s plan to invest $16.7 million in child care and calling on the Senate to consent to his controversial funding scheme.
Shumlin wants to pull the money from the state’s contribution to the earned income tax credit (EITC), which benefits about 45,000 low-income working families. Vermont spends about $26 million each year to match 32 percent of the federal EITC.
Under the governor’s proposal, the eligibility standards for the child-care subsidy would be updated from 200 percent of the 2009 federal poverty level (FPL) to 200 percent of the 2012 FPL. That would make roughly 900 additional families eligible. The investment would also increase the subsidy amount, which is paid to providers on behalf of the family.
Julie Coffey is the executive director of the Building Bright Futures Council, a public-private entity that advocates for children age 6 and younger. At a press conference on Monday, Coffey called on the Senate to resurrect Shumlin’s EITC proposal in order to “shore up the gaping holes in our hemorrhaging child-care finance assistance system.”
Jodi Marquis, the owner of a child-care center in Newport and a former recipient of the EITC, said the choice between keeping the money in the EITC and diverting it to child care should be a clear one.
“For me, as a working mom, as a business owner, and as a community member, I honestly do not see why this is such a debate,” she said. Child care offers the “better return on investment,” Marquis said.
But while members of the child-care and early education community are rallying around the plan, lawmakers have shown far less enthusiasm.
The House rejected the plan, opting to allocate just $3.3 million to the state-subsidized child-care program and drawing on other funds instead of using the state portion of the EITC.
Shumlin’s proposal has also met with skepticism in the Senate Finance Committee, which will now take its turn at drawing up a revenue plan. Committee chair, Sen. Tim Ashe, D/P- Chittenden, has been an outspoken critic of the plan.
Coffey was clear that the $3.3 million in the House budget bill won’t do the trick. If the Senate doesn’t step up the contribution, child-care providers won’t be able to serve as many low-income children, forcing their families to seek care outside the state-regulated system, according to Coffey.
The advocates and providers avoided weighing in on wisdom of reducing the EITC. Coffey deflected multiple questions from reporters about potential drawbacks of using this as the funding source for child care.
“I’m not a politician and I thankfully don’t sit in the Legislature and have to make the decision, the tough decision that they make every day in where to find funding … it’s the time to prioritize, and we appreciate the governor’s commitment to prioritize early childhood investments,” she said.
The group did, however, dispute the suggestion put forth by some lawmakers that the proposal pits one group of low-income Vermonters against another.
“I think what we are asking 40,000 people to do is make a firm investment in our future, which is children,” Marquis said. “I see it as a contribution from a class of people who are going to benefit from having these increases.”
State officials say they don’t know what percentage of families that receive the EITC would benefit from the increased child-care subsidies.
Representatives from the Vermont Business Roundtable, the Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children (VAEYC), a early childhood professionals group, and Vermont Birth to Three (VB3), which recruits and trains child-care providers, also expressed their support for the child-care proposal on Monday.
