DFW News App

Felicia Davis knew exactly why she kept losing staff at her child care center. Davis, the owner of Ready Set Jump Learning Center in east Fort Worth, just could not offer a salary high enough to keep employees.A grant from a Child Care Associates pilot program changed the trend. She raised staff wages and maintained costs for her families.Now, that program could expand beyond Tarrant County. State Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, and Rep. Ben Bumgarner, R-Flower Mound, recently filed bills calling for the establishment of a program allowing the workforce development boards in Tarrant County and 13 other North Texas counties to award grants to offset some costs for child care providers, according to a news release.“The grant helped me retain quality teachers by offering competitive wages, so they can support their families while doing the work they love,” Davis said in a statement. “Now, I have stability for my team — and for the children in our care — and am able to staff more classrooms.”Senate Bill 2979 and House Bill 5529 would create the Child Care Innovation Pilot. It is based on Child Care Associates’ Prime Early Learning Pilot, an endeavor that has allowed providers to offset rising utility costs and increase educator pay to $18 an hour.The proposed program would expand the availability of high-demand seats; increase compensation; stabilize tuition costs; and support program quality and child outcomes. An estimated 52 child care programs would benefit during the program’s first cycle, officials said.In Tarrant County, the Prime Early Learning Pilot used $25 million in federal pandemic relief funding to offset costs and compensation to 19 child care providers serving low-income families. Child Care Associates, a Fort Worth-based early childhood education nonprofit, worked with Rice University’s Texas Policy Lab to operate the pilot.So far, the Tarrant County pilot program has seen a 14% increase in overall program enrollment; 33% reduction in tuition costs for families; and a 17% improvement in early childhood educator retention rates, according to a news release.Supporting the entire child care ecosystem is a key way to increase the number of providers, Kara Waddell, president and CEO of Child Care Associates, said in a statement.“That’s why we created a grant model that directs funding to where programs need it most: offsetting fixed operational costs, supporting staff wages, and providing incentives for key services and high enrollment,” Waddell said.Other lawmakers filed bills with similar goals. The difference? House Bill 5086 and Senate Bill 3007 would allow the Texas Workforce Commission to pick up to six local workforce development board regions to operate pilots over a four-year period.The Tarrant County program was created by the Blue Ribbon Action Committee on Child Care, which the Tarrant County government and the cities of Fort Worth and Arlington formed in 2022 to find a path toward sustainability for providers and affordability for families. Alfreda Norman, co-chair of the committee and former vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, described child care as the breaking point for why most nonworking parents do not participate in the labor force.“Ensuring that the child care options needed most by working families exist in every community across Texas is critical to our state’s long-term economic success,” Norman said in a statement.The Fort Worth Report’s Texas legislative coverage is supported by Kelly Hart. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.Jacob Sanchez is a senior education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org or @_jacob_sanchez.