RALEIGH, N.C. (WGHP) – State Rep. Ashton Clemmons (D-Greensboro) started as a kindergarten teacher before rising through education and then deciding to use her educational experience to help in government service.
So it was from that perspective that on Thursday she and three colleagues announced a series of bills being filed in the General Assembly to address a severe shortage of available child care that they say is negatively affecting both families and businesses across North Carolina – and threatens to get worse very soon.
These bills, five each filed in both the House and the Senate by their bipartisan bicameral Joint Legislative Early Childhood Caucus, of which Clemmons and the others are cochairs, are positioned, these sponsors say, to address both the immediate problem of vanishing federal subsidies and the long-term problem of childhood development and the need for workforce development across the state.
“When I started out as a kindergarten teacher,” Clemmons said during a press conference Thursday, “I quickly learned that the most important time for children is before they come to kindergarten. … Their brains grow 85% by age 3.”
But that’s hardly where this issue ends. State Sen. Jim Burgin (R-Harnett), Sen. Jay Chaudhuri (D-Wake), Rep. David Willis (R-Union) and Clemmons each spoke enthusiastically about why lawmakers need to wade into a problem that has a ...
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