Explanation
Mayor Ginther’s vision for Columbus, America’s Opportunity City, is that all children are ready for kindergarten. Addressing early childhood learning means bringing awareness and resources to a critical learning stage in childhood development. Children who come to school ready to learn are more likely to succeed academically and in life.
Children who participate in high-quality early learning experiences significantly improve their early literacy, language, and math skills. Ample evidence shows that children who enter school unprepared fall farther and farther behind. Students who get a poor start in their earliest years are likely to struggle in high school and subsequently, fail to graduate.
Child care and early learning programs also fulfill a critical need for our community’s workforce. The availability of safe, nurturing environments for children, provides parents, family members, and caregivers the opportunity to attend their jobs or pursue their education.
However, in Ohio and nationwide, the child care industry is neither adequately nor equitably funded. Most providers, both center-based and home-based, are small, minority-owned business and many teachers earn poverty-level wages. Most providers who serve low-income children survive on state child care subsidies and struggle to meet the expenses incurred in operating a center.
These difficulties have been further exasperated by new child-to-teacher ratios and maximum class sizes required to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. To support child care programs in Ohio, the state is providing subsidies to eligible providers from their CARES Act funding. Even with this additional funding however, child care providers are having difficulty in sustaining their businesses.
FISCAL IMPACT: This ordinance authorizes an expenditure of up to $6,200,000.00 from funding provided to the City of Columbus from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed by Congre...
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