RALEIGH, N.C. — The clock is ticking for the North Carolina General Assembly to decide whether to pick up expiring federal funding for child care centers across North Carolina.

What You Need To Know

  • Child care advocates, providers, parents, owners and more rallied in Raleigh Thursday

  • Industry workers are asking the General Assembly for $300 million to fund child care centers

  • Beth Branciforte owns the Branches Community School in Durham

Demonstrators called for action, not just talking points, in the budget on the Halifax Mall lawn Thursday in the face of these aforementioned child care centers losing $300 million from the COVID-19 Child Care Stabilization Grants next month.

Many who work in the industry say they fear cuts to staff and other resources will follow.

“I spend 76% of my budget towards my staff and their benefits. Without this investment, we’re going to have to push that money back to families, but at this point, working families can’t afford to pay more,” said Beth Branciforte, the owner and operator of Branches Community School in Durham.

She brought her 5-year-old daughter Frankie with her to the demonstration.

“We are here because North Carolina child care is in crisis,” Branciforte said.

Branciforte said her school serves 33 children and their families. She has run the child care center for more than six years.

“This reality is imminent,” Branciforte said.

Yet the morale of workers has been revealed in other ways as well. Of the state child care providers surveyed by the North Carolina Child Care Resource and Referral Council, almost 3 in 10 programs (29%) expect to close their doors for good when the funding expires.

But a poll from a conservative think tank showed the general public may not be as concerned as the advocates who stood outside the General Assembly on Thursday. A John Locke Foundation poll showed out of likely general election voters, about 37% supported child care tax credits while 10% suggest taking no action at all.

Branciforte said right now a Durham family with an infant pays around $1,800 a month at her school. Once child care providers lose the funding from the stabilization grant, she believes there will be an exodus from the field and child care facilities will close if more money doesn’t come their way.

“During the stabilization grant period, I was able, for the first time in my career and my teachers' careers to establish retirement accounts and match those with a 3% match. That will, unfortunately, be the first thing that has to go if the funding does not continue,” Branciforte said.

Part of Gov. Roy Cooper’s budget proposal includes nearly $750 million for child care and early childhood education. Budget talks are in progress right now in the legislature.

Branciforte said she is now in the habit of fundraising to cover some expenses, but those efforts only go so far.