Assemblyman Brian Curran (Lynbrook-21^st A.D.) today joined with his Minority colleagues in support of multiple proposals he is co-sponsoring aimed to both increase access to child care as well as make it more affordable. To help make child care more affordable, Curran is backing several proposals amounting to a $1 billion investment in child care to help reduce child poverty by increasing tax credits for parents.

“I can’t think of anyone more deserving of support to help afford child care than working parents; they truly are real-life superheroes, and any chance to give them support is a chance we cannot pass up. Studies have shown that by increasing funding directly to parents and businesses, with things like tax credits, child poverty rates are reduced, so it is just common sense we adopt this plan,” said Curran.

Curran also supports expanding access to early childhood education, by increasing aid for universal pre-kindergarten programs as well as studying the feasibility of expanding universal pre-kindergarten.

“Every child deserves a quality education—plain and simple. It shouldn’t matter where you were born or the socioeconomic status of your parents. That is why I am proud to support expanding access to universal pre-K so that more children can get access to the fundamental building blocks of education,” continued Curran.

Finally, Curran is supporting multiple proposals that would require the support of the Office of Children and Family Services. These would cut red tape and make it easier for children to access child care by increasing provider options and establishing a model for child care outside traditional models, such as nights and weekends. Additionally, we are proposing measures to provide more parental choice in child care, create a database of substitute child care providers and conduct studies to examine barriers that prevent the creation of new child care providers.

“The fact of the matter is that in New York, we have too much red tape and too many regulations that restrict avenues of access to affordable child care to those who need it. By cutting through these restrictions such as allowing non-traditional child care hours, we can give working parents the tools to access child care when they need to; this is another example of how by getting rid of excessive government regulation, we can make life better for everyday New Yorkers,” concluded Curran.