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Articles by Merrill Gay
CT's child care progress and the pending crisis
Last year, Connecticut took a major step toward addressing the state’s child care crisis. Gov. Ned Lamont proposed —and the General Assembly passed— legislation to establish an Early Childhood Endowment, funded initially with a $300 million investment from the state surplus. Over time, this endowment will grow to make Early Start programs affordable (free for families earning below $100,000), raise wages for early childhood educators, and expand capacity to serve more children.
Child care is in crisis and without it the economy can't reopen
This week, school districts must submit their plan for re-opening schools to the state Department of Education. But in all the ensuing conversations around what is best for Connecticut’s children and their parents, there is one group that continues to be overlooked. Merrill Gay and Elizabeth Fraser A sound plan for re-opening the economy must include child care: and not just guidance on logistics for keeping young children and their teachers healthy.
State Helps Keep Some Child Care Facilities Afloat
The Office of Early Childhood announced Friday that it would continue making payments for child care services until June 30, even if the kids are not currently attending these centers. The Office of Early Childhood said it will do everything it can to help make sure child care programs can survive even if they had to close their doors because of COVID-19.
Child poverty in Connecticut hurts us all
CTMirror Contributor A student walks by one of the many boarded up houses in an impoverished neighborhood in Hartford on the way to school. The following essay — one of four to be published this week — appeared in the recently released 2018 KIDS COUNT Data Book, Taking Stock: Considering the Future of Child Well-Being and Family Opportunity in Connecticut. It is published by The Connecticut Association for Human Services (CAHS), an affiliate of the Annie E.
Prioritize children and families; defend the Office of Early Childhood
To our new governor: Faced with a projected two-year budget deficit of over $4.6 billion, you and your administration will soon be confronted with many difficult choices. Amidst these challenging decisions, and with an eye toward the future of Connecticut, we offer you one easy answer. To ensure that young children and their families can thrive while contributing to the shared prosperity of our state, preserve the independence, momentum, and power of the Office of Early Childhood.
Office of Early Childhood merger takes us back, not forward
It is troubling that several of the budget proposals floating around the State Capitol call for the merger of the Office of Early Childhood into the State Department of Education. It was just three years ago that we finally brought together services touching families with young children from five different agencies into one stand-alone Office of Early Childhood, under the direction of a commissioner. Childcare licensing and newborn home-visiting came from the Department of Public Health.
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