Elrich releases plan to fund early childhood education in MoCo

[Anonymous]

https://wamu.org/story/19/03/07/childcare-and-early-education-to-get-big-boost-under-montgomery-county-plan/

Very good news, but

The initiative will be spread over four years, with a goal to add 600 seats in the first year. (There are 76,000 children under the age of 6 in Montgomery County.) Those seats will come primarily from existing childcare and early education providers in the county.

Doesn't sound like it will make that much of a dent in the problem. It takes two incomes to live in this county and childcare is ridiculously expensive. I'll take this as a start, but we need more.

[Anonymous]

What would really help is if the state lowered the "Infant" age from 24 months to 18 months while still maintaining the ratios.

[Anonymous]

https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/HHS-Program/CYF/CYFChildCareSubs-p307.html#Eligibility

Moco already has a generous child care subsidy program for working families---see above.

This is in addition to the county's child care voucher program for truly low income families.

600 slots from Elrich is merely a publicity stunt. The headline will say something big like "Elrich launches early childhood education initiative," but it's just basically a tiny pilot.

Plus, child care isn't the same as preschool.

[Anonymous]

“What would really help is if the state lowered the "Infant" age from 24 months to 18 months while still maintaining the ratios.”

Are you nuts? 1 to 6 is not appropriate for under 2s. In fact 1 to 3 for infants seems a stretch to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/HHS-Program/CYF/CYFChildCareSubs-p307.html#Eligibility

Moco already has a generous child care subsidy program for working families---see above.

This is in addition to the county's child care voucher program for truly low income families.

600 slots from Elrich is merely a publicity stunt. The headline will say something big like "Elrich launches early childhood education initiative," but it's just basically a tiny pilot.

Plus, child care isn't the same as preschool.

+1000 exactly what I would have posted. He should increase the available subsidies and offer public space to open more child care centers to make it more affordable.