 sure we have a chance to welcome everyone who's still with us via Zoom. Welcome back. Welcome to everyone in the room. We are now in the second part of our legislative summit. It's my pleasure to introduce the moderator for the second panel, Speaker Joe Krawinsky, and the panel's title is Universal Affordable Child Care Access, Why It Matters and Opportunities for Success. So please join me in welcoming Speaker Krawinsky and our panelists. Thank you. So welcome back everyone. I am honored and privileged to have the opportunity to to moderate this conversation around universal child care access and why it matters and opportunities for success. In 2021, the legislature passed a bill that was signed in the law making it our goal that families pay no more than 10 percent of their income to cover child care. We are on the path to trying to figure out how can we make this happen. We know that there are families that are paying over 30 percent for child care costs and that's just simply unacceptable. And so I am I'm proud to be part of bringing people together to talk about how we can what's happening out in the field to hear stories about why this is important and the impacts it has on families in our community. So it would be great to start by having everyone here introduce themselves and share why they believe a universal affordable child care system is so important to Vermont. So Allie, let's start with you. Welcome. Hi. Thank you so much, Speaker. Hi everyone. What a pleasure to be here. Sometimes feels like a miracle when you're here because I have identical four year olds and I thank goodness had a minute to talk to some of their early educators a minute ago who are in the audience and I got my blood pressure down and everyone's okay. I just so appreciate this topic and being discussed today and all of you here. Give me your attention. So I'll just explain briefly why I think this is so important through the lens of grounding us in what is Vermont's child care crisis. I think we're all increasingly familiar with that three out of five kids even before the pandemic did not have access to the child care that they need. That's 8700 children in Vermont today today. Think about where they are. What are they doing right now? What are their families doing right now? So that is even before the pandemic this crisis and access. And then if you think about it, you know, as Speaker Quincy just said, if you found that child care you feel so lucky but you're paying 30 to 40 percent of your income to access it. And then you think about quality. Early educators are the heart and soul of a quality early child education system. They're making $14 an hour on average in Vermont without benefits. So there is your crisis folks. This is a broken part of a business model. It is not an infrastructure. And yet why am I so excited about this work? So rarely in our history we have an opportunity to pull a lever like this where when it's not working it spins us further into crisis and when it does work it affects all the things that we care about. So just think about the early development of a child and every kid having that access. Think about their implications for the families, for our communities, for the economy. Here's one number for you and we can talk about data plenty throughout this panel. But here's one number for you, right? $275 million. That's the economic boost we get when we put thousands of Vermonters back to work that we know will go back to work when they have access to high-quality affordable child care. So there are so many reasons to do this. That's sort of a little bit of why the what we're trying to solve together. But I just want to round it out with the equity perspective because at the end of the day that's why Let's Grow Kids is facilitating the statewide movement that has come to the moment that we're in right now, facing a session like this. This movement was founded on the principles of equity and you can see it ripples through every possible dimension of this. First of all, kids, kids, kids are not having access to the high-quality early learning experiences we know through the brain science that they absolutely need. It is not accessible for those kids. It is not accessible for those families. Through all dimensions. There's not enough of it and it's not affordable. Those who actually get it, there's not enough funding in the system to support the true quality and wraparound services that every single one of those kids needs to support their healthy development and a lifetime of their thriving and success. From academic success to the ability to have successful relationships and anger management and critical thinking and propensity for or against chronic disease or addictive behaviors. This is happening for these kids between zero and five. This is the basis of an equity issue. Secondarily, think about the workforce, the wages of the early childhood educators, the bottom two percent of any profession. And these are mostly women. These are mostly women doing the most important job in our world who are making less than anyone else. This is an equity issue. The diversity of the workforce is important. The final element here is, you know, kids recognize skin tone by six months old. So think about a future when we actually have a prepared and supported workforce, a diverse workforce who is trained and supported in the work to help their kids and their families this most crucial time in their development. The equity issue is even crept into our business conversations recently. These large employers, they see this as a crisis, they're able to maybe push a little bit here and there, not solve the systemic problems of supply and quality and access, but maybe as a child care scholarship, maybe an on-site program. Smaller employers and their employees can't do that. So a systemic solution to this is within our reach. We've never been closer. The table is set and think about what's going to happen when we get this right from all dimensions of the things that we care about. So thank you very much. I really appreciate the chance to talk about this in any possible table. So it's really a joy to be here with this panel. Great. Thank you so much, Allie. Nikki, go ahead. Great. Thank you for joining us this morning. I'm excited to be here. My name is Nikki Tatro. I'm the director of marketing and e-commerce for a small business in South Burlington, Vermont named Instamart. I recently got involved with the Life's Grow Kids campaign on a multiple fronts. I am a regional advocate in the Loyal County where I live in Morrisville, Vermont. And I am employer endorser of the campaign. Instamart supports this movement already for this action to be taken. And today I'm here to speak to you on behalf of a parent advocate. I am a brand new mom. My daughter turned one year old on October 25th and I survived. Yay. So I'm here talking to you about that. I am married and I survived. So this is all great news for me. But I'm here to talk to you about what I went through my experience over the last year because I know it is not unique to me. I know that all of my peers, my friends, my colleagues went through the same thing. So I found out when I was pregnant that I needed to get on the child care list the next day. I was in the OBGYN parking lot calling and calling and calling, getting on wait lists. My husband didn't know I was pregnant yet, but I know I needed to do that because I know that the lists were insurmountable. And so for me, we ended up getting child care when my daughter was seven months old. So what did I do for those seven months? I am a full-time working parent. I have teams that need me at work, not just remote and to be there in person, so I can help my business thrive and grow as their director of marketing. And I was taking my child to work with me. And I felt so fortunate to be able to do that. My employer supported me, but so many people can't do that. My friends, my colleagues, my peers, they had to choose. Who's going to stay home? Who's going to raise my child? And again, I'm here because I'm the lucky one. My daughter now has amazing child care and has amazing early childhood educators at Next Generation in Williston, and that is 55 minutes from my home. So 55 minutes of my daughter twice, excuse me, two hours of her day are sitting in the car commuting back and forth to Williston, Vermont, because I can't find access anywhere else. Now to the affordability piece. My husband and I are very blessed. We live in a very modest, great life in Vermont, and we're excited to be able to do that. My husband is a small business owner, he's a general contractor. We both need to work, and we both need to work to be able to afford and live and breathe in the state comfortably and happy. And this is where we want to raise our daughter. We pay 29% of our household income to child care, 29%. While we're paying off student loans and trying to get good healthy foods to feed ourselves and our daughter and pay mortgage and all of the other things that we want to support this local economy, it's insurmountable, it's unfair, it's crippling, it's really crippling. So I appreciate this audience today. I hope that there are questions as we go through this panel. I'm really here to advocate for all of the parents in Vermont who are going through exactly the same thing that I went through, and really again, I'm the lucky one. My child does have access. Both of the parents in our household are working, and this is a great outcome for us, but there are so, so many people who do not get that. We know that there are 5,000 people in this state who are willing and able and wanting to go back to work. So please, please, please, let's collectively make smart decisions together. I know Vermont can't do this. I'm excited to support this campaign, and thank you for listening. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Very powerful. Thank you, Janet. Yes. Welcome. Thank you, Joe. And thanks, Allie, and thanks, Nikki. I usually say, like, well, it's always tough to follow Allie, but this time is how I'm following Allie and Nikki, who both, I mean, really expressed, you know, a huge, I guess, the challenge and the opportunity in front of us right now. So my name is Janet McLaughlin, and you know, I've had the pleasure of learning from and working with early childhood educators for the last 10 years. So sort of starting with those who cared for and taught my two boys at Pine Forest Children's Center in Burlington, and then as serving as the volunteer treasurer at Pine Forest, where through many conversations and, you know, the late nights with spreadsheets like doing this, right, in addition to your full-time job and your two children, you know, I came intimately familiar with the trade-offs between affordability for families and compensation for early childhood educators. You know, and then I was able to join Let's Grow Kids and was a senior leader there for several years, and I worked closely with veteran early childhood educators there to address capacity and quality and viability of people like Chris, who you'll hear from next. But today I'm primarily here as the Executive Director of the Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children, and I want to tell you a little bit more about our workforce development efforts throughout the panel, but I want to tell you first a little bit more about Vermont AUIC. So our mission is to advance equity and excellence in early childhood education with early childhood educators as our foundation, as an organization, but they truly are the foundation for the entire system that we have, or that we want to create in the state. You know, we're the state's largest membership association for early childhood educators, and we are the state affiliate of NACI, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, you know, and, you know, we work to provide resources to early childhood educators and advocate for policies that will, you know, move us forward. And I want to point out that our work is aligned with with multiple with with multiple professional resources and standards, right? Early childhood education is not advanced babysitting. It is not like, you know, motherhood 2.0. It is like this is a skilled profession, you know, and the work that early childhood educators take on, you know, we have a code of ethical conduct. There's, you know, NACI, there's position statements on equity, position statements on developmentally appropriate practice in the state of Vermont. You know, there are the Vermont guiding principles for full and equitable participation of each and every child. This is a Vermont early childhood action plan. So I just want to, you know, provide a little bit of that context, right? That this is serious work. It is research-based work. It is skill-based work that early childhood educators are taking on, and we know that they are compensated nowhere near the value that they are bringing to the children, to their families, to our communities, and to our economy. You know, for Vermont EYC, we are really proud to run programs with support from the state of Vermont, you know, you know, via the legislature. We ran the Teach Early Childhood Scholarship Program. For early childhood educators, we run a registered early childhood education apprenticeship program. We're in the early days of a pre-apprenticeship program for high school students. We run the newly established student loan repayment assistance program. And we've also spent several years as the backbone for an initiative led by early childhood educators in the state to establish a recognized profession for early childhood educators in the state that would provide a clear and consistent basis for quality and for compensation in the field. So I'm happy to go into more detail on all of that as we continue our discussion. Great. Thank you so much. And it's true that the child care policies that we're looking at is so wide-ranging, and workforce is such a huge part of that. And so I'm looking forward to talking more about different ways that we can support the workforce side of this challenge that we're trying to solve here. In fact, so to you. My name is Chris Nelson, and I own and operate Mountain View Child Care in Troy, Vermont. I came into this field. I fell into it kind of because I had four children under the age of five who needed child care. And the two places I could get them were 45 minutes apart. And then I had to drop them off and drive and everybody had different schedules and going to be picked up. It was impossible. It was way too expensive. It took too much time out of out of our quality time because it wasn't a quality time. It was all on the road. And it just didn't work. So I looked at it at that point and I said, I know the problem. So now I need to find the solution. So I quit my job and I decided to open my business. And when I opened my business, the first day I had six two-year-olds sitting out with me and I had a little bit of anxiety. What am I going to do with these little creatures and their minds that I can shape and grow? And I decided to look at it. I would give every child something new every day. And I will learn better so I can do better. And I went back to school while I was doing child care and I got an education in child care. I had other degrees previously so that I could focus on what it was. And I read all the research and I realized that by age three the trajectory of that child is already being determined and impacted by the quality experiences they're having. So I can change that and I can emphasize the best growth and the best development that they can have. And so if I invest my my skills in these children then they grow up and they have in their heart memories of Vermont that will keep them here. I left the state. I came back and the reason I came back is because I wanted to raise my children to have memories that I had here. So I came back with my kids. We we built our business. Now I have children. I've been in it 30 years. I have children of my first group in my care now. And they'll still say to me hey do you remember when we did this? And I'll put it back into the program because if you can remember a memory in your heart 20 years later or 30 years later then that made a minute impact. And if you can relive that memory with the child in my care then we get to keep spinning that cycle. And then the parents can go to work and they feel comfortable and they're not worried about it. They can focus on their job and I can focus on the children and they can share that at the end of the day. So my role as an early educator impacts everybody in this room regardless of where you're coming from and we all have an opportunity when we know the problem to meet the solution. We know the solution now. Thanks. Thank you so much. Go ahead. Good morning. Thank you. Thank you Allie. Thank you speaker for having me. I'm very excited, very passionate about this topic. So my name is Alain George, the president of Vermont Creamery. We make delicious award-winning cheeses in central Vermont. Business has been in the States operating for 38 years. So we have a big responsibility, 130 employees and 85% of our workforce is in manufacturing. So also to know that I'm a mother of two young boys, Matisse with 11 and Hugo who is six. And so I'm going to think of it. I think you picked the right word. It's survival mode. And so I'm running a business. My husband is traveling two weeks out of the month so and all our families are in France. So no support, no backup and so it's an interesting journey. We know the past three years we have felt the impact of a global pandemic juggling work, running businesses, childcare, school and if we have underscored the necessity of what childcare is, which is a necessity for us, think of a manufacturing worker. If this person cannot show up to work because the childcare is closed or because there is no childcare, we secretly cannot run the line. And what I mean by that is the milk is coming and we have nobody to turn this milk into cheese and to put food on the table and on supermarket shelves. So the importance of childcare for our employee is critical, is essential for our staff. Our business has been very fortunate to achieve incredible growth over the past couple years and when you look at the fortune that we have, but also the challenges that we are facing for supporting this growth, it's not lack of market access and people love Ramon Jesus in general. It's not lack of resources or capital, not lack of access to milk. It's literally the number what challenge is workforce. Oh boy. And when I look at the opportunity that we have here to really change the game, to really bring not only people into Ramon's because there is a supporting infrastructure but also supports the people that wants to work. Childcare solves all of this and so we need to pay attention to that and we need to be forceful about where we want to take this opportunity. We face the challenge that across our entire team we have developed hiring practices. We offer great benefits which is launch something called flexible manufacturing where people take their hours, whether they want to start at 10 o'clock in the morning because they got to do the drop-off or leave at 2 o'clock in the afternoon we got to do the pickup to really try to think differently into how we structure our workforce to adapt to those conditions. But even with all those efforts we know that we can't solve it as a employer alone and that's why when Allie called 2020 I think by that time I still had the kids upstairs I was like oh my god stop screaming I'm on conference going and she's like hey you want to talk childcare so yes please because at that time my husband had paused his work so he could watch the kids so I can run a business for a pandemic with the essential workers. We still were paying our daycare because I'm like I can't have them going out on business so we need to keep paying even if we're not sending our kids and so when Allie said you know I'm putting this group together for the CO2 tank and we need to think of how we're going to put this bill together I was like yes absolutely let's do it so we know I want to repeat but I want to repeat Vermont is strong, childcare system that is affordable 29% this is not acceptable it's not sustainable for our state neither our parents for all family that fairly compensates early childhood educator and offer room for all our children and so we have we have an opportunity we passed this bill 171 in 2001 and and so that was a big momentum that was a big achievement from from all of us and this is the first step and we need to keep the pressure we need to keep the momentum to really be the first in the nation to to offer a college universal childcare for for for all our working family we can position ourselves as a leader in the space and also recruit we populate our state with young working families and and propelled from moms in a thriving economy as a result so thank you for having me thank you thank you so much you know you spoke about how your business has been impacted by the the lack of affordable and universal childcare system Nick you're going to look at you you spoke so eloquently about your personal experience and could you tell us what it's been like at your organization as well yeah absolutely so as I mentioned I'm a director of two teams at instrument and so you know we have been dealing with the throes of trying to get employees back to work post COVID pandemic and getting everybody in person so we can work collaboratively together and so like myself they have also been bringing children to the workforce to work with them so really I think for me and as a director of my team I look at the workforce and think how do I get these people to stay on the team who are proven themselves very valuable and how do I get more my my company is very fortunate right now we are growing and I need more team members I need more help and so from a recruitment and retention standpoint this is equally important if not even more so so that even though instrument with our tremendous flexible policies of 16 weeks paid leave for the the maternal parent as well as bringing your child to work with you we have come up with creative solutions as Adeline spoke about too and so it's still not enough and so we want to make sure from a from an employer perspective we're doing just as much as we can for each individual thank you thank you and that's another thing recruitment and retention not only for our businesses across the state and nonprofits but also for staff in childcare centers right and so we know that there are challenges with our early education providers with staffing and access to resources so I'm going to go back to you Janet just to talk about what you are seeing on the ground yeah so last spring Romani UIC did a survey of early childhood education programs in in the state and we heard from really you know from over half of the center-based childcare programs in the state and of those 83 percent of them were reporting that they had staff vacancies the average number of staff vacancies was was three right and each of those so and even if you you know that translates to it was translating to you know up to you know 10 slots in each of those programs right that are currently not available because they cannot programs cannot find early childhood educators to fill those roles and programs are being incredibly diligent and creative about working with people who anybody who wants to enter the field to support them in starting on this career path and support them in developing the skills that they would need you know to continue to grow in the profession but right now it we're in this very tricky place where we're saying this work is important it's rewarding like you will you know you know have a smile on your face at different moments of your day that like you cannot get that experience any you know through almost any other job and yet it's also a job right where you know the wages are incredibly low you're expected to be there in person you know having like you know a pretty you know you know close connect you know very close connection right with with young children and you don't have health you know you don't your employers not able to offer you health benefits they're not able to offer you disability insurance right when if you have when if you hurt yourself and you need to you have to get up and down off the floor a gazillion times right and so they don't have disability insurance for you so the lack of benefits you know combined with the low wages is just it's not sustainable for so many people within the field the people that are doing it right now are carrying the system and the leaders of these programs are kind of you know they're kind of being superheroes and we that that's not a that's not an answer right for us you know for us as a state given what we know how important this is the supports for early childhood I would say early childhood educators are really interested in pursuing their professional growth and development in the field and so some of the the you know right now at CCB early childhood education is their largest like concentration and area of study in terms of the number of students that they have so people are excited about this and the reason that that's happening right now though is because the there's supports that are in place right through all the investments in higher education and and resources that that have been we've been able to dedicate sort of thanks to coven but like thanks to relief dollars but in terms of the the scholarship dollars apprenticeship programs um critical occupation scholarships I think I just want to say like early childhood educators are excited because they do recognize that when they have um the expertise um in and knowledge that they can see how that allows them to serve the needs of their kids of the kids that they're seeing more family and Chris can probably speak really well to the fact that like the needs that our childhood educators are seeing in programs amongst among children are growing and getting a little bit more complex and the skills that you need to address them are um are elevating um but I think ultimately a lot of it comes down to again like a lack of respect and understanding for early childhood educators and for the work that they're doing um and that's something that we've been you know together in term you know with let's grow kids and with so many people you know working to build awareness and I and I have heard from early childhood educators who say that they you know are feeling seen for the first you know for the first time in you know in their entire careers um but Chris I wonder what you would add to that uh Chris is one of our board members okay so to go on what Janet said I've been in field for 30 years um my primary um position and my passion is in my my child care business itself um but but it's never been sustainable in all the years I've worked I've never worked only that position I've had to work two or three jobs to bring it in um and what I try to do is work with other people in my field to make sure they know um what's out there what they can attach and how we can piece mail different things together that's not a way to build a workforce it's a way to to help a workforce but it's not a way to build it because I can't go in one of my roles to the high school and convince parents to allow their children to follow their dream and go into early education if I can explain to the parent how they're ever going to pay that back how they're ever going to make a living how they're not going to have to work the three jobs that I work um and the and on the flip side and and so the benefits that we have during the day my benefits on my job that I love so much I can go barefoot I'm outside most of the time um I hear giggles every day um I get the aha moments I get to see the first in a lot of things that parents miss so so those are my benefits but that doesn't feed my family it doesn't pay my bills and it doesn't help me retire so we need to invest in that so we can build the people up because our workforce is aging out and if they can't put into an IRA or help put into social security then we're also going to have to have to take care of them later so again we can either be we know what the problem is and now it's the time to solve the solution we want people to come we want them to stay we want them to to thrive and we want them to believe in this state and believe in what they bring in so that they can get back thank you Chris I will say that you mentioned this Janet that it's a really important that our early childhood educators feel seen and are seen in our heart part of this conversation and our work and you know it's it's always challenging and super important work but during the pandemic we were we were tested so tested and it was I mean early childhood educators were superheroes and the glue that kept families together during incredibly difficult time and continue to work through that and so I I feel like I can speak for the all the educators the legislators in the room thank you for your incredible work and I just let's give them a round of applause for so I'm going to turn back to you Ali let's grow kids has been working hard on organizing this effort and making sure that all Vermonters are heard through this process what are the key messages that you and your team have been hearing across the state I love that question okay so you just heard them all but let me just start by saying I don't I don't know if you all are getting the leg the goosebumps and the shivers and the holding back tears a little bit like I am over here in the corner but it is just really humbling to be here with you all I mean every single one of you sharing your personal stories talking about what brings you here it just reminds me what an amazing privilege and joy it is for us to be in Vermont together we have identified a problem we are coming together from all different perspectives to solve it that is what we see every single day and it really is an honorable lifetime to be in this sort of position in this movement and let's work kids and see this and be a part of it and so we are hearing things like the time is now the time is now and if we do not do this then what it's sort of this like staring into the precipice when everything has come together the table is set you know there's good news here we're hearing the crisis that we're solving but the good news is we have a plan we have a question ahead of us in this legislative session and it's kind of a yes or no question yes the details matter but folks have been working on the details in this building and on the camp pain trail and in the field for so long I've never seen an effort where there's been so much thought put into the policy detail best practices from around the world from other states where we've all coalesced around the policy sort of principles and what best practices for transformative child care at the same time the implementation on the ground the infrastructure is ready for this policy so it can be successful implementation and the third is the people power the people power coming together to say yes we need this raise our voices especially from marginalized communities to make sure they have an outsize impact on the detail you know of the policy and sharing their stories and making sure this is really a true successful transformation and and so the message as we hear along that path the time is now we can't afford not to do this why haven't we done it we haven't done it because we're talking about money I think we have to be clear about that we're talking about money it will take a public investment to build a public infrastructure but the messages we hear are from all sorts of folks small business big business parents grandparents early educators health care providers we are paying in the same size and scope of what the cost will be to fund this infrastructure be the first in the country of high quality affordable accessible equitable care you know we're already paying right now in these heartbreaking and very expensive you know expenditures in pretty much every sector work workforce recruitment retention health care you know workforce crisis workarounds you know and the heartbreaking work of taking care of these kids in every single stage of their life because they did not have access you know to the opportunities they need zero to five so that's what we hear is we can't afford not to do this we know it's a tough conversation has to work for Vermonters and the time is now can't afford not to it pays for itself immediately and over a lifetime so that's what we're hearing beyond it's the right thing to do and it's the smart thing to do right like when do we get a chance to take care of our kids go upstream and do that knowing the data is there the solution is there the consensus is there oh and it's a great investment you know from everything from the human cost to the dollars and cents so that's over here you're hearing in here today I mean this is the user stories you know and I was thinking oh we talk about data you get all the data you need from Nikki 29 percent of income you know 55 minute commute seven months until you found childcare I mean there in a nutshell is pretty much all the data you need and and the other thing I would just say is this word survival that is really not what I think we all want when we talk about the joy of becoming a first-time parent or having young children you know it should be joy not survival and so we have an opportunity as a state to do that and when you talk to folks you can feel that you know and the last thing I'll say is not only is the time now because of the movement and where we've come and the unity the unity even the political unity of this but 117 childcare champs just got elected and they're not just smiling and saying yeah like kids they are sophisticated champions and understand these details I know every single piece of this has been sort of vetted and researched and worked on by the field like Janet's great work with the workforce and each piece is historic but we've gotten them all ready and it's sort of served up you know in this moment starting with h171 and the work that this building did this great these great legislators did for that so the table set and now it is on us to sort of bring it home thank you Allie strong messages from all across the state from all corners so there are a lot of ways that people envision a childcare program that is available to all Vermonters and so what does success look like what does that look like to you and I know it's a very broad question but it's broad on purpose so I want to have maybe Janet would you start with that what does the success look like what does this successful program look like I mean a successful program looks like a you know a joyful inclusive learning community right where early childhood educators are truly able to you know do what they know supports the healthy development of our youngest children and they're able to do that with confidence that they you know are are being you know that they can that they can afford to feed their family right that they would be able to take time off if they got sick you know that they that they can pay for care for their own children right so that is I mean that is a real you know you know the at the highest level in terms of a more specific recommendation from the early childhood educators in Vermont is that they would like to create a recognized profession you know you can think of it as sort of a similar to nursing right where you have sort of an you know an entry level credential you have a you know a credential you know and then you know you're moving from an LPN to an RN to you know to a nurse practitioner right because we know that we need people at all these different levels and and there is a framework for this they're on the national level you know 20 of the largest organizations dedicated to the well-being of young children have come together created a unifying framework for the early childhood education profession here in Vermont we spent the last there's a group of early childhood educators in the state who have spent the last four years really diving into that starting with the question of like should we even explore this right they're not just assuming right and then moving through each element of this framework piece by piece to say what would this look like what would it mean for Vermont what excites you about this what concerns you about this and we you know and there is now a you know a consensus and a recommendation to to establish early childhood education as a profession move to individual professional licensure the over 2,500 early childhood educators in the state were engaged in this process in a really in a really deep way right like in terms of providing feedback not just like you got handed a flyer but like an actual engagement and so we're ready we're feeling excited about moving towards the next step and looking at what the legislation would be for that you know and ultimately it's what will create the system to allow people to enter the profession and to move up it allows us to and it provides a framework for us to hang compensation on to in a way that's meaningful it allows our higher education institutions to know what their skills they're supposed to be training against it allows our employers to know what they're supposed to be hiring against or what what you know potential applicants actually have as their skills and so I think it will really allow us to unwind some of the complexity and the sort of top-down approach that we have right now to overseeing early childhood education and really love early childhood educators to step forward as leaders of their own field thank you so much how about you Nikki what what does success look like success from my perspective as a parent here today is a lot simpler than that fortunately simpler in layman's terms but harder to achieve right for me it's accessibility number one first and foremost there are so much stressors that are going on and like I mentioned I'm a first-time parent and my first thought was oh no what am I going to do for my work we don't want that we want people to celebrate this moment this changing moment in their life so accessibility is number one we'd like to support more childhood child care opportunities and resources in Vermont and hopefully close to Lemoyle County would be preferable to me so accessibility is number one and then the second for me is affordability my husband and I both love our careers he loves what he does I love what I do I love being a mom I love all of those things now how can I make all of those things work for me successfully together and affordability is number one it's kind of like this circle where you know I'm going to my boss and saying hey I always need to make more money because all the other things are getting more expensive I just want to enjoy my work I just want to not fight for every dollar I don't want my husband and I to have very exhausting as we all do conversations of what's the sacrifice this month what are we going to do what are what what do we cut out and so and now we're getting to this holiday season too so there's lots of conversations around that in my household as of late but really affordability we need to make it affordable for Vermont families to be able to have both working parents in their households go to work and be involved in our workforce to grow our local economies because we want to see the state thrive thank you Nikki welcome so powerful how about you Adam well you know Janet and Nikki said said it well it's it's those three pillar and it started with the childhood educator we pay there more them more we recognize them we empower them that's going to bring more people into the industry that's going to then the ripple effect is going to increase capacity which is going to tackle the second pillar which is accessibility so more people come in we we left we left the experience and the service we increase capacity now we have some this other pillar the third pillar is affordability and you know I mean we make cheese we're in the agriculture business and so you know when I think of our starting wage and then I think of at that starting wage you cannot afford 30% of your income going to to child care and so you know that 10% threshold is very very meaningful and and so by focusing on that using those resources to help to fund this part then that means more people can come back to the workforce more women specifically can come back to the workforce and and again solve this this workforce shortages that we have not only for today but I really see this is an investment into the future with a very short term payback which is usually you don't see that very often it's either we're going to invest for the three to five year out and then we get to be patient with this proposal it's it's literally thousands of people coming back into the workforce and I am thinking of the woman that I would love to hire full-time not on a flexible manufacturing part-time job and and yes it's those affordability accessibility that are important thank you definitely hearing some things here how about you and I agree with what everyone said I think that we need to invest in early educators and we need to invest in in them so they can invest in the children so the families can invest in the workforce and the and be present at their job it's it's just such a cycle and it and it does it starts with us and and my fear is that I continue to get calls which I get all the time to go on wait list in my program and and I'm honest with the people that call you got three years at least out I'd like to be able to say in six months I'd like to be able to refer to somebody else I would like to be able to to know that there's a place for every single child regardless of the amount in their bank account and regardless of their zip code the state of a minus cared for from top to bottom from birth all the way through and that's what we need we need to make strong individuals and strong families and and it's tight it's all ties together so the investment the investments there we don't have time to get this wrong anymore we because if we wait another five years or ten years the workforce is going to be gone and and you aren't going to make up skilled people with confidence and and competence in a short amount of period of time we've got to invest now we've got to get this right thank you chris probably anything to add on to that I know that's a challenge normally you're thinking of your response too but I just I'm hanging on your every word folks you nailed it I would just say make no small plans right my success for me would be raising the quality of life for Vermonters from every corner of the state from every walks every walk of life and that sounds big but if you think about how do you do that you go upstream to the thing that is blocking that from happening and this is that thing this is one of those things everything you just said the idea of you allow us to move you know in the right road on this crossroads vermont we either let our demographics crush us let our costs go out of control don't allow employers to create opportunity and jobs don't allow them to hire don't allow them to grow don't allow families to thrive or you find a nugget like this that is so systemic and so upstream that when you open it up we all take this breath wages go up jobs come to vermont they expand the whole sector of early child educators you know get livable wages and can be you know have one job and focus on that job think about continuous improvement and focusing on that kids you know that's not immediate benefit we have young people in the state all of our taxes go down you know what I mean you create like the virtuous cycle of prosperity and opportunity and you look at these little nuggets upstream to be able to do that it sounds huge but what we've seen in the many years to the point that it is together is that this holds that potential I think that's why we're standing here today thinking about a massive investment that has so far fell out of our reach it's not out of reach anymore because we understand that impact and it's a choice we make about the future of vermont and whether we're going to be economically viable and young people can be here like we've all enjoyed um or come back here and so um that's how big it is right that's how big it is yeah thank you thank you so we've just heard so much incredible thoughts and feedback around this table I think it would be um great to now open it up for questions um and I'm looking out there let's start with representative shot thanks thank you all I'm a representative of Rockinshine from Middlebury and I really appreciate all the work that you're doing in your comments and how important it is and you're bringing me back to the time when I had my first children and I have grandchildren and so I've seen a couple generations of dealing with child care I appreciate the work you do and the challenge that you have to find it in the first place so you've talked a lot about um you know not just the business of child care and all the challenges there but also it feels like as we talk the the burden's on the parents to figure this out so they can go back to work when we talk about workforce and how this is going to benefit the workforce and benefit businesses so what I'd like to hear is what you think the role and the responsibility of businesses are who are the beneficiaries of getting the workforce back as a result of us doing this so so what's the role for businesses all this what's their responsibility do you want to take that it was really good question I appreciate that because when Annie pulled us together you know I started to learn how how government works and you know how we could get funding and this and that and I remember at some point we were getting further down the road with with a conversation I'm like we're looking return on investment we're talking retention we're talking about operating a capacity of the potential of our businesses and so I'm like I asked the same questions whose responsibility that is and Annie was like stepping back and well I want to see what's the answer among those CEOs and we agree the people in in that CEO thing that we have a responsibility too I can you know I can put a number on the amount of opportunity we had to pass down for our business because we don't have the workforce I can you know I can track that down I can also track down that you know how much it would cost for us to solve that alone to have an onsite decade we're a chief maker we don't do what you do but we're like what are we going to do are we going to just put that that money towards solving it ourselves which is not our job or do we leverage a very talented incredible well-operated organizations that I have a plan you want to come in and so long story short businesses have an opportunity to participate I'd love to just follow up with that too and thank you for the question most businesses as you can see and I'm curious if Nikki has a response too we'll say got it you know pretty fast very you know concrete thinkers this is how I do my bottom line oh yes you got me on the ROI you got me on the necessity you got me on my own like interest in this plus a public interest how do I fix it unfortunately the only solution to this is public investment full stop because you do not create a profession you do not solve the access for all folks you don't make an equitable system that is sustainable that actually can be affordable high-quality and accessible and you know really abide by certain standards businesses could piecemeal all do their own onsite child care and it won't be affordable for families and it won't be quality and you won't create a pipeline of early educators and a profession so there is just no one-off solution which is why the business community has started to coalesce over the last couple of years I think again another piece of puzzle why we're here today we have to pay in we know we have a responsibility we know we have a major outsize benefit we probably spend more on recruitment and retention these other efforts than we would if we paid into an efficient effective system a systemic equitable fix that can only be routed through a public investment and the government right there this is a public private marketplace still it's a beautiful elegant example of efficient and affected and targeted and public private there are market forces that still come to bear but you know the way the business community can continue to participate is to pay in as businesses in some way you know for a systemic fix and if they try to go it alone it will be piecemeal not quality and and just not sustainable and just a one more little moment on it you know one of my favorite stories and one of the most incredible champions for this is Twincraft skincare another manufacturer and Essex Manuski and they said well that's it we just have to put something on site but as Adeline said we're soap makers we're not early educators and we would subsidize this to the tune of sort of all you know millions millions of dollars it wouldn't be high quality we wouldn't have the workforce you know and it would only be for a small fraction of just our employees and what about all those other community members that would need that access so that she's like sign me up for something else let me pay in in other ways and I just to me that that illustrates right absolutely how about you Nikki I'd have to just echo both of what Adeline and Allie said I instrument is ready and we looked at from an executive leadership standpoint what do we do how do we solve this and I was bringing him the president of the company my problems every day with my daughter in my lap saying okay you hold the baby let's talk about this how are we gonna and so we did talk about opening up a child care system around instrument in instrument for our employees but it's not the solve it's a very small temporary solution and not to mention it would cost millions of dollars up front which is not sustainable right so when we got looking at and thinking about more creative solutions so lucky to be fortunate and introduced to Allie and and this movement in this campaign and said wait a second we also have a solution this is our solution this is what we propose we are so much more happy to support of movement that is causing and representing systemic change rather than small solving a small business issue just within our four walls that's not the solution from a business perspective and we're ready to support financially this campaign to be able to cross this finish line thank you thank you Janet and Chris anything to add to that before we move on to the next question I think all I would add is each time a business creates a center on their site to offset the the challenges of their employees when they open the position up it takes somebody from somebody experienced from another place and creates a hole over there so so what you're doing is you're shifting a workforce you're not creating or building or strengthening the workforce you're just moving them from one place to another and that doesn't create any lasting change or any benefit for the rest of the communities it just it's a game of shells and I would just to continue to continue the theme right this is a resource issue you know when you know in the the time that I have been doing this work right the conversation was you know like well what if we just organized it right or right couldn't you know like well let's get some business men to come in here and look at the numbers and figure it out and we're going to figure out a way to act make this sustainable you know because maybe these you know you know these small business women or you know these not profit leaders they don't know what they're doing and then they came in and looked at it and were like oh no we can't solve this either right we had to like go through several years of a learning process around that and and now I think everybody's sort of through it to say you know the issue truly is it is truly is a resource issue this truly is a public good and we need to and we need to make the investment because you know we've said it a million times right parents can't afford to pay more early educators can't afford to make less so we need to figure out where we're getting the resources thank you Janet all right I think we have a question on zoom Connor could you we have two questions and I think they're sort of tied in together it might be best for Ali to start but Jim would like to know as a person with several organizations who will be positively impacted by the universal childcare please provide info or highway businesses and individuals may support and endorse this effort and then we have the second question can someone on the panel discuss how long the rollout will be for this type of proposed plan and how the creation of new centers fall in that timeline yeah Ali I think that's right Jim yes thank you you know and I'm we're available all the time at Let's Her Kids and you know my email is alyat let'sherkids.org and you know be touching anytime so let'sherkids.org you can thank you for the question my goodness it is a movement it is you know continual conversation our hardest work is ahead this session is going to be you know all of us really putting our shoulders to it and doing that work together you can endorse the campaign as an organization it says I believe in this effort 10% of you know household income is a max affordability early education comp and a public investment is the key you know ingredient as a human is just a citizen you can also join the campaign you know and both of those things are available on our website so thank you for the opportunity and I really appreciate the support and continuing that phase of the work let's see how long will this take to phase out I'll just quickly start that anyone else like to add what we haven't summarized and I will just huge shout out to the early childhood champions in the room who are legislators I mean you are so well served for any Vermontra out there who is watching this by your childcare champs that you've elected and we have so many in the room today from the speaker lieutenant governor to representatives Brumson what do I see here today representative Garifano and so many more who are here today and beyond you know in the house and the senate and your statewides these are incredible folks who are are focused on this and doing the work right now and sharpening their pencils the five buckets of the bill that is sort of being again within the legislative process pushed forward by the legislative leaders right now our affordability you've heard about that word the details behind the sliding fee scale the 10 cap support for the early childhood educators through wages benefits and overall support for that workforce get that pipeline continued and we haven't talked that much about the pipeline but you know I will say there are humans they're ready to go in the hundreds and hundreds so this is not a this is not a wishful thinking this is a real this is a really pipe line not a pipe dream so you know we've got 500 folks in ccv subscribe to the early ed training you know pathways we have hundreds of folks coming in from a to v a programs like you've never seen before so all these things have to meet in the middle they're not going to stay in remont or stay in this field if we don't come through on the wages you know sustainably so these pieces are all being worked on sort of simultaneously the governance you know we absolutely need to have accountable data driven streamlined regulatory system for this starting with you know state government accessibility that's that supply and demand continue to build that infrastructure bricks and mortar out although mostly that's the workforce as you've heard and then equity you know ensuring that there are every kid in care has the rapid services they need and we've really understood accidental things that we do not want to do accidental consequences to make sure we do not fake those into the bill so that we're making this inaccessible in some way to historically marginalized populations so those are the core five buckets of the bill all being worked on in this session and beyond it will likely to I mean should we be able to pass this bill this session right or even this biennium it's probably a three to four year phase in which is not unheard of to think about this level of sectoral transformation where you're getting those 8700 kids access you know equitably spread out across the state and that no parent pays more than 10 percent of their income and these early educators make a wage you know that is in this minimum compensation scale imagined by the workforce so that's in a nutshell some of the detail behind the bill that we hadn't talked about the sort of philosophical points that are underlying that work and that phase in about I would say you know three to four years upon passage of this bill which is why we're so urgent about this work where you might see Vermont be the first place in the country to fully have the all-in functional quality system right I'm just curious as oh true any big policy work that we do here we need everyone around the table and it always takes several years to make sure that we're rolling it out to get it right and and to ensure success you know part of Jim's question about getting businesses involved and how do you get involved with the movement I'm just curious you know for Nikki and like is how do we how did those conversations start perking up in your organization and do you have any advice for businesses out there and how to engage their employees in this really important conversation um you know sometimes it takes to have a I don't know a working parent that is trying to survive at the top and said okay how do I fix that fix that my leadership team um five out of seven of my leaders are parents with children over the age of 10 so when I wrote like to my team it's like hey we've been donating to Let's Roll Kids we've been working together for for years when I'm like hey we need to be champion and we're going to use our business voice a lot more are you in it was like well yeah I mean somebody was on zoom with kids screaming in the back what are you asking for yes of course so for us it was uh it was it was a no brainer to a point where you know every year we have um an event called better maker day instead of radar employees and this specific summer I asked Ali to be our keynote speaker to talk about you know the work she's doing and it's like standing ovation from from everybody including grandparents that are working in our you know in our company so it's not just the parents that are in the you know daycare stage it's really across the board and it really has um yeah it's been a great uh a great culture a great you know especially people working really hard for the past three years especially when you're a central worker you know all of a sudden you hear pandemic and you have to show up the next day with your fear because you have to make food and you have no I mean you have choices but you want to keep working I'm sorry so um you know it was just uh everybody who has been running around our support of let's grow kids and every single day since I've been drinking this amazing talk about symbiotic I love that yeah I think it would echo a lot of what you said and also just add that it's really education and awareness internally and instrument we can I use my voice the president of the company uses his voice and we just talk to our employees about this issue I mean most of them are facing it currently so we just talk about awareness and what are the resources out there for them that they can use now and also get them involved with let's grow kids because there are so many things that from an individual perspective you can do as well and including the action teams in your local counties so that piece is really important and then externally it's really just about education for other business leaders like ourselves we a lot of these people are our friends we meet with them personally and professionally and it's all about again raising awareness and getting them involved with the issue when we were really facing this we didn't know what the solution was and we were thinking about investing millions of dollars for a child care system within our facility until we met let's grow kids and we got engaged with the campaign so we just really have to get the message out there and get people educated about what it actually is and what it's going to take thank you so helpful other questions out here representative Campbell so I'm Scott Campbell from St. John's we we decided as a society a long time ago that education was a public good that we ought that we ought to pay for I guess I'm just it strikes me that this ought to be public education why should why should we expect parents to pay 10 percent why should we expect them to pay anything we're raising the next generation it's the most important thing that we as a society do so I guess I'm just wondering what you what you see the connection that anybody here sees with with with the public education system with using public schools we have right now a trough and the number of kids in our schools sure I'm happy to do that so you know right now our current setting is you know our current the current structure right is that early childhood education has run through you know at a thousand separate businesses right now and you know what we're trying to do here is a little bit of the art of the possible right we want to you know we need a solution now and so I mean I could not agree with you more that early childhood education should be a public good it is it is different in terms of the the the structure of it when you're dealing with younger children and so we do really believe that the mixed delivery system that we have right now with people with that people can choose a family child care center they can choose a an early childhood education program that is close to their home or not or close to their work right that they can choose a public pre-k program you know if that works that some of those that those choices especially for families of young children are really important right like you can't put an infant on a bus right you can you know depending on the the number of children you have do you have is your is your child do you have an infant in a toddler or do you have a preschooler and an elementary school late children like it's just a little bit it's much more it's more complicated when you have when you have young children and so it's not like a one size fits all so we do feel like some of the flexibility that's associated with the the mixed delivery system that we have right now is has a lot of benefits for families and that that's the structure that will serve us well and in making this big change right now are making the big investment that we need right now so that's sort of how I think about it I wasn't curious I wasn't suggesting that all the kids go to school I was just thinking that as an option I was thinking really more of a funding side that we don't think of it as as I'd be happy to chime in a bit too you know it first of all we do have to think about it as a public good and that's what it is and that's why the public investment and this benefit that again it's not even just for families of young kids we all get this benefit so greatly nothing magical happens when you're five there are some differences well first of all as Janet said the art of the possible so we don't fun child care at all as infrastructure as a subject you know we did it for a minute in World War II we know exactly how to do it we showed that and then you know moms came home we said oh no dismantle right so I mean really this is the thing that is a little bit wild is that we actually have a blueprint we've done it before we know how to do it and we just have an act on it because of the money so if you say it's just free for all it's a billion dollar program right and we've not even had the courage to fund an affordable program but the beauty of the affordable is it's not building something that you wouldn't have built otherwise to Janet's point about best practice and mix delivery system there are some key differences about development there's huge variation in development at this young age the smaller setting the close to home you know just the ratio of staff to students you know the other thing is it's voluntary not compulsory so it sort of lends itself to a public private affordable mixture as opposed to this sort of like one you know like block of public ed you know compulsory at certain age so I think this is an evolution in our society I think this step is a really beautiful step of that evolution it actually meets the need and it doesn't build an infrastructure that you then want to dismantle and rebuild if you took the full step because that mix delivery system has been proven to really be best practice to meet the needs of parents to sort of fit into the cracks especially in a rural community when actually a home base provider is a huge piece of that puzzle too so there are some real elegant reasons why this works it actually is a really important impactful step for tour towards a public good starting at birth. Thank you so we have time for one more question before we go to closing remarks around the table Representative Blumen. Hi I'm Representative Blumen from Worlington and Mary to an early childhood educator and have had a lot of discussions because I toured Pine Forest this fall and I've had a lot of talks with faculty members of different or the the early childhood educators in different centers and one of the things that they raised is the concern that money will be invested as we as it relates to improving the conditions for early childhood educators that their the emphasis will be on scholarships and kind of deferring the cost of education and professionalization and not on the bottom line in terms of what they actually earn and there are there are a lot of places that are hemorrhaging staff because people can't make ends meet now and we are losing you know some experience at the childhood so I'm just wondering can you tell me us more about what is envisioned in terms of addressing you know the paycheck issue? Do you want me to do a quickie? Sure basically I would just say great question this is why back to the message question we can't nibble around the edges anymore Representative Blumen we have to do the whole thing because if you nibble around the edges you're not funding an infrastructure and Adeline actually laid it out perfectly it's a three-legged school stool I've heard reps you know and centers talk about this and that's exactly right affordability access and quality they are one thing you push funding into this field and it goes to pay the true cost of care so parents pay no more than they can afford and the program actually gets the funding to do the true cost of care which is the majority the wages for their workforce so it's one funding mechanism it's one chunk of change and it does all the quality access and affordability pieces that is primarily that paycheck so that is the vision if you nibble around the edges it's almost like you're throwing money away at this point because you're not getting all three and you're not building that infrastructure so I think that's just the mechanism behind what you're asking yeah I think that's right I think some of the investments we're making right now are right just to make it like slightly more palatable slightly more you know like like slightly more affordable to be to be an early childhood educator and you know in in many states right there's been efforts right that like a lot of what the investment is is to make up for the fact that we don't have a well-compensated workforce right and we try out you know different places you try all these pilots to improve quality and pay for coaches pay for all this sort of stuff and instead you get and it's like well the how about we try we pilot actually paying people what they you know what a fair wage is for this work and you there are states that are doing this already and the improvement in terms of the retention of staff you know especially important for these little children right who are like having you know interactions with their these you know close interactions with their caregivers you know it's it's absolutely dramatic so absolutely we have the mechanism to make sure that that investment goes to compensation for early childhood educators is critically important and then you know then there do need to be sort of the wraparound resources and supports for program leaders and mentors and all that sort of stuff but yes that is that will only be effective if we get the compensation to early childhood educators who deserve it great thank you for the fantastic questions everyone and at this time like to wrap up with any closing remarks or thoughts from the panelists Edolyn? Do you want to start? I would say that you know I think we we all heard that it's just it's a win win win win win win win win win win win win win. For not only today for but for talking generation of impacted so it's just you know the fact that you have you know parents that used to come to your daycare I mean it's just It's a very long term opportunity for us. The other thing I could call out is we have less real kids. I remember when I first joined, you know, we were like, okay, you want us to invest? Like, what's the plan? What's the program? Are you solid with this thing? Or is it just a big ambitious goal? And we're very lucky to have an organization that's been at it for years. Decade, that has a very solid plan on how we can fix that, that we can trust, that we believe we can invest in. And so, and we won't have less real kids forever. So not only the environment is ready for it, but we also gotta seize the moment while we have an organization so powerful and so educated around the plan that is gonna work. And I just wanna call that out. Fantastic, thank you. Kristin? I think the public already invests in its citizens. Unfortunately, a lot of the investment that this plan would fix is right now being put on the correction. We just need to shift our thought and make a stronger foundation, and then we won't be putting all the money into correction and losing all that time. Every time we go through a lifespan, you'll lose in a generation. And we've known for a long time how to fix it. We don't have another 10 years and another generation to lose because we can't implement it. We need to act now. Thank you, Chris. How about you, Janet? And I would just add, I think that early childhood educators are very, like they're working their tails off right now. They are having their moments of feeling overwhelmed, but also are seeing that there is a potential for a solution in a way that they've never experienced in their lifetime. And I'm so hopeful that we can do that, but I just would flag that the reason that we're talking about early childhood educators and compensation and things like that, but the whole reason that matters is because we were talking about our babies, right? Our infants, our toddlers, our preschoolers. These are some of the youngest, and they're some of the most vulnerable citizens in our state and their wellbeing and their healthy development is what motivates early childhood educators every day. And we just need to make that it possible for every child to have that place like Chris was talking about. Thank you. Thank you. I really just wanna thank you all for the time and this platform today. It's really compelling to be able to share stories and see you guys engaged in the conversation. My encouragement and closing remarks would just be a moment to get involved. So let's figure this out together. The time is now. We have let's grow kids. We have a plan. We have action. So ask questions and get involved. I'd hate to see this become continually a transient issue where everybody just grows out of this because then their kids are five and they're in public education. I don't wanna see that. I wanna see real systemic change. I wanna see Vermont take action for this and be a leader in the nation in this. And so really just get involved and ask questions and let's figure out how to do it together. Just thank you to every single one of you. I think we're about to show we still can come together and solve big problems. So here we go. Great. I love this momentum, everyone. Please join me in thanking this wonderful time. So inspiring. Now I'd love to turn it back over to Lieutenant Governor Mollie Gray. Hey, well I have some unfortunate news. This is the conclusion of our first, I think this is the first ever legislative summit on childcare and pay leave. I want to again give a huge round of applause to Jill and the childcare panel. I think this is super, super inspiring. Legislators and newly elected as well for joining us both in person and online. I also want to recognize Conrad Kennedy, Jill's Chief of Staff for helping to organize my Chief of Staff, Andrew Gillespie. This has been a project that's been in the works for the last couple of months. And I guess just to reflect on some of the things that we've heard just over the last three hours. And I just wrote down a couple of themes. This regular theme around a public good that we know that paid family and medical leave can't be voluntary. That we know that childcare can't be voluntary. That we can't put it on businesses to figure it out on their own. That we know that paid family and medical leave is really good for retaining workers. We know childcare is essential for retaining and recruiting workers. And that workers need pay leave, including our incredible childcare workers. That we have to keep up the pressure and the momentum. And then we have a lot of lessons learned from the pandemic and we can't let those slip by because we're not out of the pandemic but certainly the needs continue. We know that it's not happening in Washington, it's happening right here in Vermont. And I think to quote this panel at the time is now. The time is now on both and it's time to raise the quality of life for every remonder to quote Ali. So thank you all for coming. The recording will be available. I wanna thank Orca for offering to record the legislative summit. So we'll get that out to all of you. Please share it with colleagues who aren't here. We need more champions. And I just wanna thank you all again and hand the floor back to Jill for some closing thoughts. Thank you so much. So wow, right? Wow. I just wanna thank all of you for joining us today and your commitment and advocacy for these clearly important policies that we need to take on. The data and the information that we heard today clearly highlights the need for a universal paid family medical family leave program for all Vermonters and high quality, affordable childcare. We know Vermonters are struggling and it is imperative that we pass legislation that allows us to take care of our family, our kids and our communities. We need policies that are flexible and that meets the needs of Vermonters from all walks of life. So we all heard the strong arguments today about why this is so important and why we need to take this on and I'm fired up to do this work. And I just wanna take a moment again. We, this isn't possible without our early childhood educators. It's just not possible. And like I said, they were superheroes during this pandemic and I've told the story before and I have to repeat it. My close friend has a little one at Robin's Nest and I can't tell you the best moment of our day was when we got the little note home about what he did and what he accomplished that day and that kept us going. That little note meant the world to our families and other families and it was the commitment to be there during this incredible tough time and it's now our job to be there for them and to make sure that we're taking care of all of our families. And so we have some big goals of half of us but I am fired up and I know that we can do it together. So thank you, Molly, for your leadership in this work. We will miss you. Thank you so much. Again, thank you to all of our incredible panelists today. This is not the end of the conversation. This is a continuation and we need all of your voices at the State House in Montpelier. So thank you again for being here and now let's get to work.