Director's Report

January 17, 2007

State needs Quality Child Care

Hearing set Monday in House Labor

Please ask legislators to invest in Wyoming families

Wyoming’s human “infrastructure’’ should not be neglected as the state hastens to invest in its physical infrastructure during the Legislature’s General Session.

Certainly it is important to improve Wyoming’s roads, housing, and community services as we seek to build a sustainable economy that will prove strong after the present energy boom subsides or busts.

But we need to invest in our families, too, especially those with children too young to attend the public schools. They need safe places to stay while their mother and/or father work to earn the living needed to support them. Those child care centers need to give these children the attention they need to learn language, to learn how to play, and how to respect and get along with others.

Economically, it makes sound sense. At the Wyoming Nonprofits Day at the Legislature Tuesday, several stories circulated about nonprofits that have experienced difficulty retaining employees because they cannot find good places to care for their children.

One mother who moved from Montana to work for the Cheyenne botanical garden moved into the Capital City only to realize it was going to be very difficult to find daycare she could trust and that would help her children learn and grow.

She had to take her children 700 miles back to Montana so they could stay with their grandmother for two weeks. It was a very long time for a young mother to be separated from her children. When she located care, she had to make the same 700-mile to retrieve them.

If Wyoming wants to attract the workforce it needs in an economy with nearly full employment, working to improve the availability of quality child care make eminent good sense. Like all investments in quality, it will not be inexpensive.

The time Legislature will consider two bills this session, House Bill 95 and HB 96, which establish the program and provide funds for it. The bills, considered over the past 10 months by the Joint Interim Labor, Health and Social Services Committee, will be consider in a joint meeting on Monday. Citizens can advocate for the bills in a joint hearing before the House Labor and Appropriation committees on adjournment Jan. 22. The hearing is planned for the Capitol building but the room number has not been determined yet.

Please contact both your local legislators and the members of the House Labor and Appropriations Committees. If a member of either committee is your representative, please be sure to note in your message to that legislator that you live in his or her district. Quality Child Care is House Bill 95 and the bill containing the appropriation Quality Child Care is House Bill 96. Both can be read on the Legislature’s Web site.

The House Labor, Health and Social Services Committee includes: Jack Landon, chair; Ken Esquibel, Liz Gentile, Timothy Hallinan, Elaine Harvey, Jerry Iekel, Tom Lubnau, Lori Millin, and Jeb Steward.

The House Appropriations Committee includes: Frank Philp, chair; Rosie Berger, Steve Harshman, Alan Jones, Pete Jorgensen, Owen Petersen and Jane Warren.

Citizens in or near Cheyenne who would like to participate in the hearing or just listen to the debate should arrive at the Capitol building by 3:30 p.m.

Dan Neal
Equality State Policy Center
340 West B Street Suite 203
Casper WY 82601
307-472-5939