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Child-care provider warns of voucher shortfalls, workforce strain
Summary
A Raleigh child-care director told council federal cuts and a local voucher wait list are forcing staff layoffs, reducing program capacity and threatening quality of care; the speaker invited council members to visit his center.
Chris Romaley, director of Little Makers Academy in Raleigh, described staffing and funding pressures facing child-care providers and urged council members to visit his center to see operations firsthand.
Romaley said a federally funded English-language tutoring program for his diverse staff lost funding and every staff member employed through that program was laid off. He also described “an ongoing voucher crisis” in Wake County, where a large wait list prevents qualifying families from accessing vouchers. He said under-enrolled classrooms and delayed vouchers force providers to choose between cutting staff or cutting quality.
Romaley emphasized low wages and limited benefits for early-childhood educators despite required training and credentials, calling child care “the backbone of our economy and community” that requires public investment. He invited council and the mayor to visit Little Makers Academy to “meet the teachers” and work on solutions.
No council action or staff response appears in the public-comment transcript; the remarks represent an appeal for attention and local policy solutions to staffing, funding and voucher access issues.
