More than $200 million in COVID relief funds for early childhood education in Louisiana has come and gone, prompting a St. Tammany advocacy coalition to seek help from local sources and support low-income families with sky-rocketing tuition costs for their children.
The St. Tammany Early Childhood Education Ready Start Network is stepping up efforts to offset the burden placed on families, lobbying to raise funds through partnerships with community agencies. The funds can be matched through the state's early childhood fund, Ready Start Coordinator Erin St. Pierre said in an email.
In this October 2014 file photo, former state education Superintendent John White watches a pre-K class at Lyon Elementary in Covington.
School Readiness Tax Credits are also available to anyone with a state tax ID number, allowing for a dollar-for-dollar credit up to $5,000, which can be earmarked directly for St. Tammany, St. Pierre said.
A vulnerable position
In a letter sent to St. Tammany governmental officials, St. Pierre asked for consideration to include the network in their upcoming budgets.
The letter stated that over 700 children in St. Tammany were funded this past school year through state and COVID relief assistance programs.
One of those programs, called B-3, expires at the end of June. The program supported 167 infants, which make up the highest need age group with seats in high demand across centers.
The lack of funding would put care centers and young children in a vulnerable position, the letter states, and that dedicating money to the St. Tammany Ready Start Network to assist families would help maintain a “seamless workforce and economy.”
'Parents are concerned'
Early education advocates say the lack of childcare funding would affect more than 16,000 families statewide, impacting parents’ job security and putting centers at risk of shutting down. It also impacts the unemployment rate, which is currently at 4%, advocates say.
“The Department of Education invested more than $200 million into early care and education, but that money has been used and now it’s no longer there,” said Libbie Sonnier, director of the Louisiana Policy for Children. Last month, the state Legislature shot down a proposal by Gov. John Bel Edwards to add $52 million to the Child Care Assistance Program, leaving only $44 million approved in funding.
“A lot of our parents have told us without the B-3 program, we're going to have to pull our kids out,” said Sarah Holliday, owner of Northshore Kids Academy in Slidell. "Parents are concerned."
Program waitlist
The center is one of 43 Type III centers in St. Tammany that collaborates with the Ready Start Network.
“It was so instrumental because of the ease to get onto the program,” Holliday said.
In contrast to the state-funded Child Care Assistance program, which could take months to receive a response, low-income families could get approved with the B-3 program within a week, Holliday said.
When the funds expire, a "bridge program" will kick in through December that will continue paying for tuition for high need families in St. Tammany, but they should get on the childcare assistance waitlist as soon as possible, St. Pierre said.
That waiting list, however, could take months to process with a backlog of applications stretching back to October of last year.