The president of North Dakota United says the state has 40,000 open jobs, many of them unfilled because parents simply don't have enough options for safe, affordable child care.
"We're hoping that if we have a dedicated funding source to help pay these child care workers, folks take advantage of that and jump into the workforce," Nick Archuleta tells KSFY.
A statewide grassroots coalition is calling on legislators to adopt a policy concept that it says could fix North Dakota's child care crisis.
The North Dakota Child Care Action Alliance is recommending creation of a Child Care Workforce Fund as a long-term solution for families, child care workers, providers, and local businesses in the state.
The fund would increase child care worker pay through state-supplemented wages, paid for annually by Legacy Fund earnings or other funding mechanism, the NDCCAA said in a news release.
The fund would also create incentives for people to pursue early childhood education and child care as a career.
Without this investment to recruit, retain, and grow this workforce, our already fractured child care system is not sustainable," says Erin Laverdure, spokesperson for NDCCAA.
The median wage for child care workers in North Dakota in 2021 was $11.19 an hour.
With a slim workforce,
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