Eleven Lehigh Valley Candidates Complete Child Care Survey, Take Strong Positions on Child Care and Early Learning Issues in Pennsylvania

(October 30, 2024) – Public support for investing in policies that fix the child care crisis in Pennsylvania is a consensus issue among the 118 candidates statewide that responded to the Child Care Voter candidate survey, including 11 candidates in the Lehigh Valley.

An overwhelming amount of support demonstrated by survey respondents shows child care voters are an important subset of the electorate, yet two-thirds of Pennsylvania candidates passed on an opportunity to stand up for kids and employers as election day nears.

Child Care has taken center stage in the presidential election, because families are frustrated by long wait lists and a spike in costs. Vice President Harris staked out her ground on this issue early in the race, setting a cap on what families pay at seven percent. States play a central role in funding and administering the child care funding and licensure systems, which is why Child Care Voters sought to get federal and state candidates on the record about how they will solve the child care challenges.

“Pennsylvania voters believe that the public sector is not doing enough to support families and fix the child care crisis in Pennsylvania – and it’s hurting the economy,” said Whitney Brown, Civic Engagement Coordinator at Child Care Voters. “With 11 local candidate surveys showing access to affordable child care as an important issue – which affects families and employers statewide – we are calling on all candidates to complete the Child Care Voter survey, so voters know where they stand on this important public policy issue.”

Child Care Voters, a project of the Children First Action Fund, contacted all Pennsylvania candidates running for state House and Senate seats as well as Congressional candidates to establish their position on policies that address the challenges to accessing high quality child care. More than 97 percent of General Assembly candidates and 92 percent of federal candidates answered “yes” to all survey questions, while 70 percent of Pennsylvania candidates did not value the issue enough to respond.

“We are encouraging voters to explore candidate responses and call on their local candidates to establish their commitment to ending the child care crisis in the Commonwealth by responding ahead of Election Day,” continued Brown. “Candidates are either not tuned in to the real struggles facing Pennsylvania families and businesses caused by reduced access to high quality child care – or they just don’t care.”

The survey focuses on common sense policies that advance the goal of ending the child care crisis in Pennsylvania. Candidates were asked a range of questions, including:

• Do you support increasing state funds for child care so that more families can afford child care?
• Should the wages for child care workers and preschool teachers be commensurate with those of other educators who work in k-12 schools and have similar qualifications?
• Do you believe that high quality pre-k builds strong social and emotional skills that help prepare children for early school success?

Eleven local candidates responded to the survey:

Susan Wild, U.S. House District 7 https://childrenfirstactionfund.org/us-house-7/

David Argall, PA Senate District 29 https://childrenfirstactionfund.org/pa-senate-29/

Meriam Sabih, PA House District 131 https://childrenfirstactionfund.org/pa-house-131/

Michael Schlossberg, PA House District 132 https://childrenfirstactionfund.org/pa-house-132/

Anna Thomas, PA House District 137 https://childrenfirstactionfund.org/pa-house-137/

Jared Bitting, PA House District 138 https://childrenfirstactionfund.org/pa-house-138/

Ann Flood, PA House District 138 https://childrenfirstactionfund.org/pa-house-138/

Joseph Lenzi, PA House District 183 https://childrenfirstactionfund.org/pa-house-183/

Stefanie Rafes, PA House District 187 https://childrenfirstactionfund.org/pa-house-187/

Tarah Probst, PA House District 189 https://childrenfirstactionfund.org/pa-house-189/

Lisa VanWhy, PA House District 189 https://childrenfirstactionfund.org/pa-house-189/

“Over the past several months, we have worked earnestly to contact every candidate running for office in Pennsylvania to establish their commitment to ending the child care crisis in the Commonwealth,” said Brown. “We appreciate each candidate that responded – even when their answers did not align on the policies that could potentially end the child care crisis in Pennsylvania. Our percentage of responses and participation in candidate conversations across the state are evidence that candidates are not tuned in to the real struggles facing Pennsylvania families and businesses struggling in light of reduced access to high-quality child care.”

You can find the full results of the child care survey here: https://childrenfirstactionfund.org/candidate-responses-2024/

Child Care Voters, a project of the Children First Action Fund, engages voters in non-partisan election activities around the importance of affordable, high-quality child care and make it a leading issue for Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial and legislative candidates.  Learn more at childrenfirstactionfund.org, and join the Facebook group at www.facebook.com/groups/www.childcarevoter.org. 

 

Information provided to TVL by:
Amy Kobeta