Helping Missouri Working Families and Children

By Andria Danine Simckes

Creating access to affordable early childhood care and education, through public/private partnerships.

Quality early care and education programs benefit working families and children. Studies show children benefit in better school performance, and working families benefit in being able to work and contribute to the economy with the peace of mind that their children are safe.

Despite these positive benefits, the need for more quality early care and education programs exists in Missouri today. There are currently more than double the number of children who need child care than there are spaces available.

In order to help fulfill this need, as Treasurer, I will work with our state financial institutions, local community organizations, and early care and education stakeholders to identify opportunities to grow the child care industry and create more quality early care and education programs.

I will start by reaching out to community banks and lending institutions subject to the federal Community Reinvestment Act and ask for their support in setting up and contributing to a revolving loan fund to help finance new quality child care centers and grow existing ones in communities where a need exists.

In addition, I will develop a loan guarantee fund with the goal of raising $100,000 in private donations that could be used to leverage up to $500,000 in loans for borrowers + a program similar to one offered in Maryland. Creating a loan guarantee fund will enable borrowers lacking a credit history and/or business experience to meet what otherwise would be costly collateral requirements imposed by lenders as well as minimize the lender's risk to grant loans.

As part of this effort, I will also work with local community organizations and early care and education stakeholders to establish Community Child Care Collaborations (CCCC) starting first in communities with an identified child care need. CCCCs will be charged with identifying and recruiting credit-worthy entrepreneurs and current child care center owners interested in opening or expanding a facility, and link them with these new financing opportunities.

CCCCs will also serve as a central management structure for child care providers serving the same community giving them the ability to share resources, such as supplies, facility space, and the recruitment and training of staff. This will allow providers to reduce their overhead costs and improve profitability resulting in savings that could be used to raise staff salaries or lower the cost of care to families. CCCCs are intended to enhance and compliment services already offered by community organizations and early care and education stakeholders working to expand access to child care in our communities.

As Treasurer, I will facilitate innovation with collaboration from public and private partners to expand quality early care and education programs to serve more working families and children.

ENDNOTES

2008 Child Care in the State of Missouri, National Association of Child Care Resources & Referral Agencies: http://www.naccrra.org/randd/data/docs/MO.pdf Explanation of the statistic: Nearly 300,000 children under age 6 need care, in addition to, the thousands of school-aged children who require either before or after school care, or both, and there are less than 150,000 total child care spaces available in the state at centers or family child care homes.
The federal Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) was enacted in 1977 to encourage banks and lending institution to help meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate, including low and middle income neighborhoods, consistent with safe and sound banking operations: http://www.ffiec.gov/cra/
The Maryland Day Care Loan Guarantee Fund provides loan guarantees for construction, renovation, purchase of land and building, equipment, supplies, and working capitol. This is not a direct loan or grant, but a guarantee of up to 80 percent of a loan provided to an applicant by a commercial bank, thrift institution, or private lender. http://www.mdchildcare.org/mdcfc/pdfs/childcareandeducation.pdf