Jennifer Washburn at iKids Childhood Enrichment Center in Benton, where she is director and owner, Nov. 28, 2023. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Abbey Cutrer)

FRANKFORT — As the Kentucky legislative session approaches “late in the game,” Sen. Danny Carroll said Tuesday the status of his Horizons Act is a “little concerning.”?

The bill, which proposes Kentucky spend $300 million over the next two years to stabilize the child care industry, passed out of the Senate Families and Children Committee Feb. 27. It has not received a vote on the floor.?

Carroll will likely present the bill before the Appropriations and Revenue Committee next, he said while participating in a Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence panel to discuss the state of early childhood education in the state. Tuesday was the 44th day of the 60-day session.?

Carroll spoke alongside Jennifer Washburn, who owns iKids Childhood Enrichment Center in West Kentucky; Zach Morgan with the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers; and Sarah Vanover, a policy expert with Kentucky Youth Advocates. Carroll serves as president and CEO of Easter Seals West Kentucky, whose programs include a child care center.?

“This is clearly the session for child care,” said Brigitte Blom, the president and CEO of the Prichard Committee. Carroll’s Horizons Act would make “a huge dent” in addressing the needs facing the child care industry in Kentucky, she added.?

Federal COVID-19 dollars are running out, leaving centers to cut pay for their workers, raise tuition for parents and even close, the Lantern has reported.?

Kentucky could lose more than a fifth of its child care providers if the state doesn’t help. And even with the state help that is proposed in the House budget — a $52 million a year increase? — experts say about 16,000 kids could lose access to child care in 2024.

Child care providers are already raising tuition. Washburn said her families will start paying 12.5% more starting on Monday. Without the Horizons Act, she said, those families will face another 7% to 12% tuition increase in June.?

The Horizons Act proposes $300 million in state funding over the next two years to child care providers across Kentucky.?

The price tag, Carroll admitted, is a “huge ask.”?

“I just think there was a lot of sticker shock with that” amount of money, he added. But, “it’s our kids,” he said, and “to me it’s worth every penny of it.”?

The state can afford it, child advocates say. Kentucky has a record revenue surplus in its General Fund.?

Among other things, the Horizons Act — Senate Bill 203 — would allocate $66 million annually to the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), which helps families with child care tuition. It would also create an associate’s degree that aims to educate and train students in early childhood development and set them up to open new centers upon graduation.?

“We were invested in for a little bit,” Washburn said. “And in that little bit of investment, we have been able to feel important. We have been able to do bigger and better things.”?

Without this stabilization money, she and others said, the child care landscape in Kentucky will only worsen, taking the economy and overall child welfare with it.?

“I’m running out of words,” Washburn said. “And my (families) are running out of options. They’re going to get creative in how they get care for their children. And in that creativity, children will be hurt.”?

Isabella Sepahban contributed to this report.