ReadyNation: PA

12/16/2025

Caregivers in Pa. are celebrating a rare pay boost, but long-term funding issues linger

Child care
The $25 million for child care comes from the newly created Child Care Staff Recruitment and Retention Program, which will be overseen by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. The program provides workers with a one-time $450 bonus next year

Funding for child care, home services for older adults, and disability support will increase under Pennsylvania’s latest budget, but still falls short.

05/13/2025

Thank you, Samantha Chivinski, Executive Vice-President of the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce, for speaking at the day without child care!

04/11/2025

Congrats to the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce on receiving the PennAEYC Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children Voice for Children Award.

It is the only statewide award in Pennsylvania that recognizes the work of grassroots leaders on behalf of early childhood education. We appreciate the chamber's continued efforts to solve the historic child care teacher shortage, and we congratulate them on this well-deserved honor!

The Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce was honored for its efforts to address shortages in the workforce at child care centers recently by the Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Childr…

06/02/2023

According to ReadyNation, gaps in the state’s childcare system are costing families, taxpayers and employers about $6.65 billion annually in lost earnings, productivity and tax revenue.

Low wages are creating a historic labor shortage.

“That is impacting not only childcare teachers but when there are no childcare teachers, it impacts working families that need childcare that go off to work at hotels, amusement parks and our factories. Childcare is the workforce behind the workforce,” said Steve Doster, ReadyNation.

Local leaders are coming together to try and solve the childcare crisis. They said it’s a deepening crisis that is driven by extremely low wages and is causing a historic labor shortage. Stat…

06/01/2023

Pennsylvania’s child care system is in crisis. Parents of young children want to work, but child care is unaffordable, inaccessible, or of poor quality.

These parents can’t take the jobs offered, or they can’t work to their full abilities. Unfortunately, we all pay the consequences. Pennsylvania’s economic development is poorer by several billion dollars due to lost revenue, lost income, and lost potential.

We are talking about a large number of Pennsylvanians. Among the 796,000 parents with young children in the Pennsylvania workforce, more than half struggle to find child care that’s affordable, accessible, or of quality.

What’s going on? It’s simple. Child care teachers, the “workforce behind the workforce,” can’t afford to be child care teachers. The talented people who give our youngest children learning experiences that last a lifetime are paid, on average, $12.43 an hour. Most are college-educated, but they earn $25,844 a year.

That’s lower than the cost of living in Columbia, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder, and Union counties, and every other county in Pennsylvania. In Columbia County, child care wages cover only 60 percent of what it takes to pay for the daily basics.

They’d be better off working at the local convenience store. And they do. Nearly half of child care teachers say they plan to leave the profession within five years.

Businesses say it constantly. “We have jobs. We can’t find anyone to fill them.”

05/31/2023

Thank you Representative Ryan Bizzarro, Rep. Pat Harkins, and Rep. Bob Merski's staffers for participating in a discussion regarding PA's childcare crisis. Thank you to Little Acorns Learning Center, Early Connections, Inc., the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership and PA Early Learning Investment Commissionfor making this discussion possible.

05/26/2023

Hug Me Tight is approved to accept up to 98 students, but only 23 are currently enrolled. The problem? A lack of teachers. It’s an issue faced by a number of child care centers across the state.

Hug Me Tight has difficulty recruiting and retaining good teachers because the pay is so low. Teachers at child care centers in Pennsylvania make an average of $12.43 an hour, according to one recent study. That’s not enough to attract and retain employees, says Wanda Franklin, Hug Me Tight’s executive director.

The system is “on the brink of a breakdown,” according to Start Strong PA, which advocates to make child care more accessible and affordable. A February survey by the organization reports that 84 percent of the 1,107 responding child care programs suffered from staff shortages. The result: A closure of 1,599 classrooms and 38,321 children sitting on waiting lists to get into programs.

This all comes at a staggering cost — $6.65 billion in lost wages, productivity and revenue, according to Start Strong PA. Bearing that cost are working families struggling to balance work and child care, as well as employers and taxpayers.

Danielle Pollard sat cross-legged in a carpeted room at Hug Me Tight Child Life Center in the Hill District and held up a drawing the size of an index card. The seven children sitting in tiny chairs arranged in a semicircle around her intensely eyed the drawing. “Who is this?” asked Pollard, who...

05/19/2023

The Tri-Star Academy in Archbald hosted a roundtable discussion Thursday, highlighting how low wages have caused historic staffing shortages, driving up wait lists for working families. A report by the nonprofit ReadyNation and Pennsylvania Early Learning Investment Commission found the gaps in the system are stressing working parents and costing families, employers and taxpayers about $6.7 billion annually in lost earnings, productivity and tax revenue statewide.

Thank you to the Tri-Star Academy-Archbald for hosting this event and to representatives from the office of Rep. Kyle Mullins, the office of Senator Rosemary Brown, the United Way of Lackawanna and Wayne Counties, The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce, Children First and PennAEYC Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children for attending!

https://news.yahoo.com/center-directors-advocates-childcare-industry-000200430.htm

04/20/2023

Thank you to the Westmoreland County Chamber of Commerce for hosting today’s "Supporting Our Workforce: Child Care in Westmoreland County" summit.

PA State Rep. George Dunbar, PA State Rep. Eric Davanzo, and other panelists are discussing current challenges facing the child care sector and paths toward solving them.

04/05/2023

Nearly 60% of residents live in a “child-care desert,” defined as an area where there are over three times as many children as licensed child-care slots. Additionally, the average cost of infant/toddler care is almost equal to that of public college tuition, even as less than half of Pennsylvania’s child-care capacity is considered high-quality.

These problems stem from a staffing shortage within the child-care sector driven by low wages. According to a new report from Start Strong PA, the average child-care teacher in Pennsylvania earns $12.43 per hour, or less than $25,844 per year. The report also showed that approximately 21% of staff rely on SNAP benefits and 21% are insured by Medicaid, even though most child-care teachers surveyed have a college education.

Any family will tell you that balancing work and parenting is challenging in the best of times. With the parents of most young children in Pennsylvania working, child care is critical to supporting the commonwealth’s labor force and employers. When parents don’t get the child care they n...

03/31/2023

Earlier this month, we joined other early childhood education advocates to discuss the impact of early childhood education on Pennsylvania’s future. The panel consisted of Shaun Elliott, president and CEO, Greater Philadelphia YMCA ; Donna Cooper, executive director, Children First; Mai Miksic, Early Childhood Education Policy Director, Children First; Milagros Battiti, early educator, Kinder Academy; Adria Godfrey, early educator, Special People In Northeast Inc.; Sheila Moses, parent and former early educator; and Steve Doster, state director, Council For A Strong America.

PA State Rep. Martina White , Rep. Joe Hohenstein, and Senator Jimmy Dillon listened from the front row.

Panelists and guests in the crowd spoke of how poor hourly wages for early learning teachers result in stress, burnout and resignations. As a result of resignations, there is a shortage of teachers, meaning long waiting lists for parents to enroll their children. For parents with kids on waiting lists, that means no affordable, quality care.

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03/30/2023

Any family will tell you that balancing work and parenting is challenging in the best of times. With the parents of most young children in Pennsylvania working, child care is critical to supporting the Commonwealth’s labor force and employers.

When parents don’t get the child care they need, it diminishes their work commitments, performance, and opportunities – costing Pennsylvania’s economy. This effect is the focus of a new study from the nonprofit ReadyNation and the Pennsylvania Early Learning Investment Commission. According to the study, gaps in Pennsylvania’s child-care system are costing families, employers, and taxpayers about $6.65 billion annually in lost earnings, productivity, and tax revenue.

Any family will tell you that balancing work and parenting is challenging in the best of times. With the parents of most young children in Pennsylvania working, child care is critical to supporting th