CHARLOTTE, N.C. — North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper was in Charlotte Thursday to visit Nana's Place Learning Center, a childcare center on Back Creek Road and talk about the state's childcare grants.
Staffing shortages are plaguing many industries right now and childcare centers are not immune. But the trickle-down is impacting working families. Many are struggling to find open daycare spots for their kids as a result.
Back on Oct. 7, 2021, Cooper announced the historic, one-time federal $805 million investment in North Carolina’s early care and learning programs. The North Carolina Child Care Stabilization Grants, made possible by funding from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, support working families with access to high-quality, affordable child care.
The owner of Nana’s Place Learning Center says the grant helped them to reopen after the pandemic and staffing shortages forced them to close. They’ve used some of the money to give bonuses to their workers.
“Staff is very important and very critical for making this operate,” Karen Jones, the owner of Nana’s Place, said.
But there’s a challenge to recruiting and retaining those workers.
“Childcare is a very poorly financed system," Janet Singerman with Childcare Resources Inc. told WCNC Charlotte. "Our childcare workers are earning, the last workforce study that was done, childcare classroom teachers earning about $11.25 an hour. So that is not a livable wage."
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Gov. Cooper toured Nana’s Place on Thursday. It’s one of the 4,000 recipients of a stabilization grant so far.
Jones said they used the grants not only for bonuses but to increase health insurance offerings and add a 401k option.
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“We have been super excited to just be able to provide those smiles on the staffs faces to provide those bonuses, they were super excited just being out of work it was a struggle for everybody,” she said.
But the stabilization grants are temporary relief. Cooper told WCNC Charlotte’s Chloe Leshner he hopes the success they’re seeing with the grants will spur future investments.
“You’re going to see me proposing additional help in my budgets in the future and we’ve got to continue the effort,” Cooper said.
Some parents say finding affordable and available childcare is a full-time job in and of itself.
Many centers are struggling to staff all of the classrooms. But they're limited in how much they can pay employees because families can only afford so much.
"Families are in their early earning years when children are in their early learning years and purchasing power is really constrained," Singerman said. "But it's expensive to deliver high-quality childcare."
Cooper said these grants should help families too.
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