(Host) Congressman Bernie Sanders is calling on Congress to allocate more money in next year’s budget for childcare programs. Sanders says he is very concerned that the Bush administration wants to level fund the federal child care block grant for the next five years.
Sanders says he will be working with several dozen members of the House to significantly boost spending for this program. Sanders says he would pay for this increase by rescinding recent federal tax cuts for wealthy individuals:
(Sanders) “So as a nation, what we have got to say, is it more important to give huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires? Or is it more important to know that millions of low-income and middle-income kids get good quality childcare so that they enter the schools in a way prepared to succeed in life.”
(Host) Donna Bailey, a childcare worker from Middlebury, says it is clear that money spend on early education is a sound investment:
(Bailey) “And we can pay a little bit of money now or we can pay a lot later. We know in Addison County after 22 years of quality childcare, we’ve seen the lowest rates of adjudication for young adults into the criminal system. We know that we have the lowest teen pregnancy rates and repeat pregnancy rates and that’s because we are able to work with the highest risk families in the county.”
(Host) Bailey says more and more families will seek unregulated child care if the federal government does not increase funding for these programs.