Child care advocates rallied in Raleigh over the summer to support daycare centers. (Photo: Greg Childress)
Gov. Roy Cooper announced Wednesday that the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services will release $67.5 million in stopgap funding this week to help stabilize North Carolina’s early childhood education and child care centers.
The money is the last scheduled payment of Child Care Stabilization Grants, which were initiated in 2021 to keep child care centers open and to improve early childhood teacher pay.
“North Carolina relies on high-quality early childhood education and child care to support children’s healthy development and learning, allow parents to work and keep businesses running,” Cooper said in a press release. “But these programs are now in crisis and we need the legislature to step up and make real investments before more child care centers close, more early childhood educators quit and programs become unaffordable for too many parents.”…