[Excerpts]
For thousands of Dallas County families, affordable childcare remains out of reach. But voters won't get a chance to decide this November whether to raise taxes to help pay for it.
The recently formed Dallas Child Care Works Coalition — made up of faith leaders, childcare providers and organizations including United Way of Metropolitan Dallas — had pushed Dallas County commissioners to put a property tax increase on the ballot…
Dallas County commissioners decided not to put the childcare measure before voters. A separate proposal to raise property taxes to address homelessness is moving forward.
Walker Moore is the lead organizer for Dallas Area Interfaith, one of the groups that pushed for the childcare vote. He said faith leaders began organizing around the issue after hearing repeatedly from parents struggling to afford care, teachers earning low wages and providers having trouble staying open.
Moore said the coalition isn't giving up.
“I would say I've talked to a lot of Dallas Area Interfaith leaders over the last week, and I would say the response has been persistence,” Moore said. “They are undeterred. Like, okay, let's go find another solution.”
The coalition is also pushing back on the idea that Dallas County should have to choose between funding housing assistance and childcare.
“They are both pressing concerns for our community, and they both need to be addressed,” Moore said.
[DAI leader] Cynthia Grady runs an early childhood program at First Presbyterian Church of Dallas. Before moving into early childhood education, she worked with families experiencing homelessness in Georgia.
Grady said that experience showed her how closely the two issues are connected.
“We found that it was a cycle,” Grady said.
“Our parents couldn't work. Our parents could not go to school ... there was no possible way for us to break that cycle of homelessness because the parents couldn't go to work. We didn't have child care.”
Advocates said they are already looking for other ways to fund childcare, including at the state level by setting up meetings with state lawmakers ahead of the next legislative session.
[Photo Credit: Sujata Dand, KERA]
With Childcare Tax off November Ballot, Dallas County Advocates Look for Another Solution, KERA News: NPR for North Texas [pdf]
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