Pennsylvania’s economic recovery amidst the COVID-19 crisis depends on working families – and working families depend on child care and early learning. A strong childcare system is critical to the long-term economic recovery in our region.

PUMP believes every child should have equitable access to high quality early learning. But, today, Pennsylvania’s early care and education system is threatened. A recent survey showed that nearly one-third of Pennsylvania’s child care providers indicated that they will likely go out of business as the result of a prolonged economic shutdown.

The PA General Assembly will be making decisions by Memorial Day about how to allocate billions in federal COVID-19 relief to address the consequences of the pandemic emergency. Pre-K for PA and United Way of Southwestern PA are working to address the significant impact of more than two months of health concerns and economic crisis. You can help.

Sign this petition by May 15th asking legislators to act now and save PA’s early learning sector.

Child care providers had no margins in their operations prior to COVID, and weeks of shut down for many of them will be devastating to their business and to their employees. The petition lays out several emergency actions that will help early learning programs recover. It also calls on legislators to address the shortage of high-quality infant and toddler child care for working families that existed before the pandemic and has been exacerbated in recent weeks.

Signing the petition will give leaders like you an opportunity to show your support for how federal stimulus dollars can be directed to help child care and Pre-K Providers.