TLCCA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Each legislative session, people from the Early Childhood Educations (ECE) industry descend upon the Capitol on the first Thursday of the month in March.  Hundreds of thousands of ECE directors, teachers, families, children and ECE advocacy groups initially meet on the steps of the Capitol for a Press Conference in the morning, and then they fan out all over the Capitol to bring awareness to the problems the ECE industry is facing in Texas.  In years past, the voices of Child Care Business owners, haven't been as well represented as some of the other ECE Advocacy groups which is why many of their legislative agendas, that don't make good business since, have gotten passed before business owners have had a chance, to modify their initiatives to where it is more manageable for our busineses and our families.

March 6th is our opportunity as child care business owners, to should up in mass, and make sure that legislators hear and understand that we are Small Business Owners in this state, that have a huge impact on the Texas Workforce and the Texas Economy and that our Child Care Businesses and the Texas Workforce need their assistance to address several key issues that make child care unfordable and unavailable to many areas of our State.  The legislators have the power to solve most of the child care issues by undoing or modifying some of the past Bills and laws that were passed that directly impact child care businesses, and by providing adequate state child care assistance funding to help hard working Texans be able to keep working and for Texas businesses to be able to hire and retain new employees.  This is not a Federal problem.  Its a State of Texas problem and it is fixable.

The rally will start with a press conference at 10:00 on the South steps of the Capitol which is the Congress Ave side of the building and then when that concludes everyone will move into the Capitol and start visiting legislative offices.  We have a room in the Capitol, #E2.020, reserved for the day from 11-3.  We will meet there at 11:00 to go over the schedule for the day and then you can return there in between other scheduled legislative meetings.  Around 2:30 we will all gather back there for a wrap up before heading home.

We cannot stress enough how important this day is going to be.  If we have a strong presence of child care business owners, who are all saying that their business are at risk of closing unless more funding is put into the system and regulations are changed , they will have to pay attention and take action.  But they need hear directly from you.  If you are planning on going, take action today and register to attend and order your T-Shirt.  Then call and e-mail your representatives and senator's local and state offices today, to let them know that you are a small business owner in their district and that you will be in Austin with other small business owners next Thursday and you would like to meet with or their legislative staff.  If they can't meet at their office, then invite them to stop by rm E2.020 to meet with us, but push them for a specific time that they can meet.  If they ask what you want to talk about, tell them that the ESA Bills are going to impact your child care business, the lack of adequate funding in TWC child care subsidy budget is negatively impacting your small business and the workforce and the child care property tax relief prop that passed in 2023 needs to be modified so that you can recieve the intended benefit of that tax relief.  If you are able to confirm an appointment, please let me know.

Please pass this information on to other Child Care owners in your networks.  If owners choose not to show up and support these efforts, then they can't complain when Bills get passed this session that have a further negative impact on their businesses. Your contacts for next week will be Stace Jones, Pres. of TLCCA (806-789-3301), Reshaun Webb, Legi. Chair (210-724-2669) and Tim Kaminski, Pres-Elect TLCCA (281-923-4162)

There over 8,000 licensed child care businesses in Texas.  Last Thursday we had around 150 child care owners travel into Austin from around the state to advocate on behalf of those 8,000 licensed small businesses. Let's set a goal of getting at least 500 owners to at least sign up to attend next week.  If each of you on this email invites at least 6 other owners you know, we can reach that target.

See you at the Capital on March 6th!