Governor Laura Kelly joins other governors in calling on Congress to protect and increase federal investment in child care in the upcoming Fiscal Year 2024 budget.

 Alongside governors from nine other states, Kelly sent a letter to Congressional leaders urging them to provide the resources child care centers need to stay open and retain workers.

 Congress supplied one-time funding to aid child care during the pandemic, and Kelly says the need for child care funding remains as important as ever. Nationally, there is a 9.7% decrease in the number of people in the childcare industry in the last three years, with 60% of rural Americans living in an area with an insufficient supply of licensed child care. Six percent of Kansans who don’t work say it is because they cannot find affordable child care. According to a recent report, the average cost for a toddler in center-based child care in Kansas costs the median two-parent household 8% of its income and the median one-parent household 26% of its income.

 The full letter to congress can be read in here.