Child care in need of more COVID relief: Pritzker

Governor renews commitment to to make Illinois top state in nation for young children

Gov. Pritzker makes the case for additional federal COVID-19 relief to fund child care Monday in Lincoln, northeast of Springfield. (Illinois.gov)

By Ted Cox

The governor renewed his call for additional federal COVID-19 relief funding Monday, saying it was critical to keep child-care centers open so that workers can go to their jobs and sustain the economic recovery.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker made the appeal outside Christian Child Care in Lincoln, in central Illinois, which he said had received a $65,000 grant to adapt to the pandemic health protocols — just one small part of $270 million to be allotted across the state from the CARES Act package of coronavirus relief. The governor said more than half of that total had been distributed to almost 5,000 centers, with an additional $114 million going out through the Business Interruption Grants program, but that more would be necessary as the pandemic persists into next year.

“I know it wasn’t easy to implement all the health protocols,” Pritzker said, for day-care centers to shift to smaller, safer class sizes and accommodate social distancing. But he pointed out those centers are critical for working families and are a potential bottleneck in the effort to get parents back to work, and that it was up to government to fund the upgrades rather than force already-struggling working families to pay more tuition to cover them.

“Child-care services are as much about a strong economy as they are about investing in our youngest children,” he said. Pritzker pointed out the state kept emergency child care going for essential workers during the lockdown to slow the spread of COVID-19 earlier this year, but added that now that needs to be extended to all workers with young children.

“Without quality, affordable child care,” Pritzker said, “there is no economic opportunity for working parents — especially for working mothers.

“Before this pandemic hit, I promised that Illinois would become the best state in the nation for raising young families,” he said. In fact, his budget proposed before COVID-19 gripped the nation in March was largely devoted to that goal. “The path forward has certainly become more challenging” with the pandemic, Pritzker added, “but it’s no less important. My commitment honestly is stronger than ever.”

Pritzker said, “Remaining on track to become the best state of the nation (in which) to raise young children is achievable — even in these difficult times.” But he insisted that, with state budgets already strapped, additional aid had to come from the federal government, and he repeated his appeal to the Illinois congressional delegation to get the job done with additional COVID-19 relief.

“We’re going to need more from the federal government,” he said. “We’re hoping that the federal government will step up to the plate” with additional coronavirus relief to states and cities that face steep cuts in tax revenue stemming from the pandemic.

Earlier in the day, at a news conference in Springfield, Pritzker touted how the state had topped a total of 5 million COVID-19 tests administered since the start of the pandemic, including a new one-day record of more than 74,000 over the weekend. That has lowered the statewide positivity rate on COVID-19 testing to 3.5 percent, even as the state confirmed almost 1,500 new cases of the coronavirus on Monday, pushing the Illinois total to 275,735 infections. Seven additional deaths brought the statewide toll to 8,457.