Governor Gretchen Whitmer outlined plans today to use one-point-four (b) billion dollars in federal COVID-19 funds to expand childcare in Michigan. The governor shared her plan at a childcare center in Oakland County.
She said employers need workers as the COVID crisis lifts --- and parents who want to work need someplace for their kids to go.
“Our recovery depends on access to quality affordable childcare. Our state’s economic recovery depends on us getting this right.”
Much of the funding under Whitmer’s plan would be directed to childcare centers in underserved areas, as well as expanded subsidies for families with children. She’s also called for better pay for childcare staff. She says her plan would make early childhood services available to 150 thousand kids who don’t have access now.