For Immediate Release
PHILADELPHIA – Support for fully funded, universal child care continues to grow. Through years of grassroots organizing, parents, child care providers and advocates, are finally being heard. In November, New Mexico became the first state to offer universal child care thanks to the work of OLE NM. In New York, citizens elected a child care champion in Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani. In Ohio, advocates with The CEO Project are working with legislators to ensure child care providers have what they need to serve children and families. The advocates issued the following statement:
“Every child deserves access to high-quality child care and pre-K—and this must be a top priority for Pennsylvania,” said Tyrone Scott, Director of Government and External Affairs, First Up. “Recent victories across the country show what’s possible when communities organize. At First Up, we are committed to ensuring that every child in Pennsylvania gets the strong start they need to thrive, child care is affordable to families, and early educators are paid a living wage.”
“From Ohio to New York to New Mexico, voters are demanding child care that works for every family,” said Tamara Lunan, Organizing Director of the CEO Project. “Ohio families deserve the same—affordable, high-quality care and fair pay for the people who provide it. We’re ready for leaders who treat child care as the essential infrastructure it is.”
“Child care shows us what solidarity looks like in practice – people showing up for one another and building the conditions for liberation from the ground up. To make it truly universal is to claim it as a public good that belongs to all of us. This victory has sparked hope far beyond New York, and we intend to see that momentum grow until equity and justice are the standard everywhere,” said Marina Marcou-O’Malley and Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari, our Co-Executive Directors of Alliance for Quality Education New York (AQE New York).
These wins provide much-needed fuel for parents and child care educators in other states. For more information or to book an interview, email press@spotlightpr.org.
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