Clinton, DeLauro Lead Fight for Better Child Care (10/22/07)

On Wednesday, October 17, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) introduced the Quality Child Care for America Act. The bill would help provide the training and resources that child care workers need to ensure high quality care for children.
“When we neglect child care, we are neglecting our children. By failing to provide the resources needed to attract and keep people in the field and improve training, we risk failing children in their formative years, as well as parents who rely on child care to go to work to support their family,” said Senator Clinton. “The Quality Child Care for America Act will help these children succeed by helping child care providers succeed.”
The Clinton-DeLauro bill creates a $200 million set-aside fund for child care centers and home-based providers, with states having flexibility to distribute these funds to public and private child care centers and home-based child centers. The money will be used for increasing providers' compensation, including health insurance coverage and retirement benefits; providing paid sick leave, paid vacation leave, or paid release time for education or training; providing tuition assistance; providing technical and financial assistance to meet licensing requirements; and developing mentor and career ladder programs.
According to Paulette Fialkoff-Amodeo, an RWDSU Local 1102 representative and chair of the UFCW Women’s Network, the bill would be a boon for working women.
“The vast majority of child care workers are women, and they are among the lowest-paid workers in the workforce and often lack health insurance or other benefits. This bill would help increase the compensation and benefits for these workers, while also helping mothers in the workforce by giving them the peace of mind that comes with a higher quality health care.”