By Sarah Ladd
Kentucky Lantern
The $300 million child care bill called the Horizons Act is “dead,” its sponsor said Wednesday.
The state budget approved by the Senate failed to allocate all the money the Horizons Act called for — and the final budget that will emerge from a House-Senate conference is also unlikely to do so.
The bill’s death — with three days left in the session — is “a shame for this Commonwealth,” said Sen. Danny Carroll, the sponsor. “I don’t know that I’ve seen a piece of legislation that had so much support behind it in my 10 years here.”
Sen. Danny Carroll says his early childhood legislation is ‘dead.’ (Photo by Sarah Ladd/Kentucky Lantern)
The West Kentucky Republican serves as president and CEO of Easter Seals West Kentucky, whose programs include a child care center, and has been a vocal advocate for child care.
He said the price tag of $300 million over two years was too much for most lawmakers to get behind. The money alone, he said, “had, probably, the biggest impact on … causing the bill to die.”
“The reality of it was I never really expected that we would get a full $300 million,” he said. “But my hope was that we would get the opportunity to kind of balance out a lesser amount … to address the most pressing needs, which right now is to keep the current centers open.”
As federal COVID-19 dollars run out this year, Kentucky centers may be forced to cut pay for their workers, raise tuition for parents and even close, the Lantern has reported. Kentucky could lose more than a fifth of its child care providers if the state doesn’t help.
With the state help that is proposed in the House budget — a $52 million a year increase — experts estimated 16,000 kids could lose access to child care in 2024. With the Senate’s proposal, that number dropped to 14,000.
In his December budget proposal, Gov. Andy Beshear pitched spending $141 million over the next two years to stabilize the child care industry, as well as $172 million to begin funding universal preschool for Kentucky 4-year-olds.
Some lawmakers felt they would be “propping up” a private industry by spending what the Horizons Act asked for, Carroll said. That “couldn’t be further from the truth,” he said.
To not see child care as education, he said, is “absolutely ludicrous” since so much brain development happens before the age of 5.
“We invest in education,” he said. “What’s the difference?”
“We missed a huge opportunity in our state,” Carroll said. “But my hope is that there will still be significant funding in the right areas. If we do not do some … ongoing funding for the providers, doors are gonna close. We can expand child care assistance all we want,. But (if) we don’t have places for those kids to go … what good is it?”
A Senate committee on families and children approved Carroll’s Senate Bill 203. It was then recommitted to the Senate budget committee and never received a vote by the full Senate.
