Governor Glenn Youngkin announced his new Building Blocks for Virginia Families initiative a press event, declaring the plan will allow the commonwealth to continue funding childcare and early childhood education after pandemic-era funding from the federal government is gone.
Promoting the initiative as part of his administration’s efforts to empower parents, raise the commonwealth’s educational standards, and bring more Virginians into the workforce, the governor promised during a Thursday press conference that the initiative will be “the great underpinnings to having the very best childcare and early education system in the nation.”
Highlighting Virginia’s use of dwindling COVID-19 recovery funds to expand childcare and early education, Youngkin noted that the funding will run dry in March 2024, warning that “without significant reforms,” the state will “see children simply kicked out” of these institutions.
In a press release, the governor’s office explained that Virginia used $794 million from the 2021 American Rescue Plan to expand childcare and early education, something Youngkin’s office explained supported “parents’ post-COVID return to the workforce.” The funding’s expiration “put 27,000 children at risk of losing access to quality care,” the governor’s press release said.
His plan will see $448 million spent annually on early childhood and after school programs, $250 spent to refurbish “excess space at our colleges to launch early learning hubs,” the institution of a new, $1 million scholarship program for early education professionals, and $10 million spent per year “for direct-to-childcare educator incentives” the governor’s office said are “shown to reduce teacher shortages and increase educator retention in childcare.”
At his press event, Youngkin said the plans will help end Virginia’s pandemic-era “childcare crisis” by “getting our children back on track in the classrooms,” and allowing “parents who have come into the workforce to be allowed to stay there,” while making similar opportunities available to other Virginia families.
Youngkin’s plan comes as childcare costs rise faster than inflation throughout the United States, with a recent report determining a 32 percent increase in the average monthly childcare payment since 2019, while inflation has risen by about 20 percent since 2021. The average parent in America is now paying $700 per month, with more than two-thirds of Americans spending at least 20 percent of their income on childcare.
The governor is set to formally deliver his budget to the Virginia General Assembly on December 20.
Following the loss of the Virginia House of Delegates by Republicans in November, both Youngkin and House Speaker-designee Don Scott (D-Portsmouth) indicated they would work together to push bipartisan legislation through a legislature narrowly controlled by Democrats. Both men cited education as a possible area of agreement.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
