Tax & Budget

NOTE: This forum was held prior to the party nominations on May 21 and 22. At this time, all three candidates quoted in this story are still candidates for governor, with Malloy winning the Democratic nomination, Griebel is planning a Republican primary run and Marsh is pursuing signatures as an Independent candidate, with the goal of earning a place on the ballot in November.

Reporter Jacqueline Rabe interviewed several Alliance members, including Cyd Oppenheimber of CT Voices for Children and Kathy Queen of the Wallingford Community Day Care Center, for a story on the Care4Kids program and the important role it plays in the lives of working families.

CAEYC Executive Director and Alliance member Karen Rainville submitted an OP-ED piece to the CT NewsJunkie.com to coincide with the end of Week of the Young Child. It highlights the benefits of early care and education and how children in Connecticut are currently doing in terms of success.

Fox 61 covered a press conference of the Children in the Recession Task Force, where CAHS early care and education analyst Sherry Linton was one of the guest speakers. The Alliance was mentioned in the story, discussing the governor's proposed cut to the Care4Kids program in FY11.

Alliance Executive Director Ann Pratt, CAEYC Executive Director Karen Rainville, Rep. Beth Bye and Congressman Chris Murphy were all guests on NPR's Where We Live with John Dankosky on April 12, kicking off the Week of the Young Child.

In June 2009, House Speaker Christopher Donovan formed a legislative task force to study the impact of the recession on children. Connecticut is the first state to do this. The first quarterly report gives a summary of what has been found thus far as the task force has met. It includes a section on early care and education, as well as unemployment, homelessness and nutrition.

This is the third letter that ran in the Torrington Register Citizen in two days; following the Dec. 14 press conference in Hartford. All three came from parents at Torrington Child Care Center. The third letter urges lawmakers not to balance the budget on the backs of children and that cuts to these programs not only impact child, but families and the workforce.

Democratic lawmakers including Reps. Michelle Cook, Chris Lyddy, Gary Holder-Winfield, Karen Jarmoc, Joan Lewis and Elizabeth Ritter joined host Rep. Toni Walker (D-New Haven) as lawmakers, members of the CT Early Childhood Alliance and other advocates urged for the protection of children from devastating budget cuts that had been proposed by Governor Rell in her most recent deficit mitigation plan.