Community leaders in Springfield are asking Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe to sign a bill that would approve funding for the Missouri Community Child Care Exchange.
Advocates of the idea say it would help ensure that working families have access to affordable, high quality child care through cost-sharing coordinated at the local level.
“It splits the cost of care between between three entities, so the parents, the employer and the state funding that will be available if the governor signs off on the $5 million," said Amanda Coleman, vice president of early childhood and family development at CPO.
The $5 million in legislative funding has already been secured, she said. It’s money that’s allocated in the budget for other programming but is underutilized, according to Coleman.
She said there’s a significant need for greater child care access in the Ozarks.
“Fifty-nine percent of infants and toddlers in Springfield alone don't currently have a child care slot," said Coleman, "which means that parents are leaving the workforce they will have, maybe go from a two-income household to a one-income household because they can't find care or the care that they can find isn't affordable based on the amount of money that they make every year.”
Coleman said they’ve been working for the past year to set up eligibility for a cost-sharing program and laying the groundwork for one.
According to CPO in a press release, the community is in a position “to swiftly implement the program upon gubernatorial approval.”
In that same release, Karen Kunkel, workforce development manager for the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, said Springfield businesses are being impacted by parents who have to cut back hours or leave their jobs because of child care challenges. She called the child care exchange model “a smart economic strategy.”
