Arizonans shouldn’t have to choose between work, child care

Georgina Monsalvo

Submitted photo/Stand for Children Arizona

Reach Your Federal Lawmakers

To contact U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, visit senate.gov and pull down the menu at the top of the page to Arizona, then click on Contact under their names for an email form, office locations and phone numbers.

To contact your Arizona representatives in the U.S. House, visit house.gov and enter your ZIP code in the box next to the map in the upper right corner of the page, then click on their names for an email form, office locations and phone numbers.

Reach Your State Lawmakers

If you know who represents your community in the Arizona House and Senate, visit azleg.gov/memberroster and click the House Roster or Senate Roster button and scroll down to their name to see their contact information.

If you aren’t sure who represents your community, visit azleg.gov/findmylegislator.

OPINION —  Arizona families are paying more than $1,300 per month for child care, on average. That’s unaffordable, and it costs our state billions of dollars every year as parents are forced to make tough choices between working and affording child care.

Arizona cannot afford to lose a single dollar in federal early childhood investments. We call on Arizona’s congressional delegation to protect and strengthen programs like the Child Care and Development Block Grant, Head Start and Preschool Development Grants that support working families, providers and children, while bipartisan solutions like the Child Care Modernization Act to expand access to affordable child care.

But federal action alone is not enough. Arizona’s governor and Legislature must also step up and invest in child care subsidies. More than 12,500 children remain on our state’s child care waitlist, leaving families without the support they need to work and provide for their children.

Fixing this could generate $5 billion to Arizona’s economy. Child care is workforce infrastructure and essential to economic growth.

Our state provides funding to businesses to spur economic development in the form of tax breaks. Why not provide funding to families who are already struggling under the impact of rising prices, to spur their ability to go back to work and grow Arizona’s economy?

Georgina Monsalvo is campaigns and government affairs director at Stand for Children Arizona, a Phoenix-based nonprofit. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.