“I’m kind of mystified by that,” said WWL’s Newell Normand this week about a move at the Louisiana State Capitol to cut $52 million from the Child Care Assistance Program budget.
Vice President of Public Policy Jasmine Brown of Greater New Orleans (GNO), Inc., an economic development firm doing advocacy work in the capitol, joined Normand to discuss the issue.
“We have been supporters of really maintaining and increasing robust funding pipelines for early childhood education for years,” said Brown. However, she explained that changes to sales tax have impacted state budgets.
“I think we saw legislators understanding that next year will have a smaller pool of a budget to work with,” she said. “And I think that has led to some conservative cuts. Unfortunately, early childhood education was a part of those cuts.”
According to the Daily Advertiser, Republican Rep. Jerome “Zee” Zeringue, of Houma, the chair of the House Appropriations Committee, proposed an amendment to the budget proposal to remove the funds from the budget. While he has argued that he said the reduction would “align the budget with the actual needs of the program,” others warn that there will be consequences.
Libbie Sonnier, executive director for the Louisiana Policy Institute for Children, a total estimated $200 million budget shortfall for the program “represents around 16,000 students that would not be able to receive assistance for childcare,” per the Advertiser.
“And so, we’re working with our legislators, especially those in leadership, to re-communicate how important it is… for our educational system, but also for our economy, for our workforce,” said Brown. “It is critical that our talent in our workforce pool – that they have quality early childhood education.”
Brown and Normand also discuss other issues that have come up this session, such as the Motion Picture Tax Credit. Listen to their full conversation here.
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