CINCINNATI, Ohio — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton visited a Cincinnati child care center Wednesday as part of her “My Promise for Ohio” tour, outlining plans to lower costs for working families and expand access to affordable child care.
Acton toured Simpy’s Playhouse and Learning Center, a family-owned child care business, and discussed plans to promote economic growth and make Ohio more affordable, according to a statement from her campaign, Ohioans for Amy Acton.
“The state has cut our full-time, part-time pay, and so we’re keeping these kids more hours. So then we have to pay our staff more money, but essentially we’re getting paid less. So centers are not taking school-age kids because they won’t get the funding to house them. So now parents are in a pickle about, ‘where will my kids be?’” said Amy McMillan, co-owner of Simpy’s Playhouse and Learning Center, in the statement.
Acton said she would keep pushing for expanded access to high-quality child care if elected.
“We’re going to be fighting to make sure this kind of quality childcare is available to everyone in preschool. There is a real lack of affordable, safe, and high quality childcare. It is about keeping staff, so this is stuff we’ll be fighting for together,” Acton said in the statement. “It’s a workforce issue, it’s not a partisan issue. Governor DeWine wanted to work on it, but our broken and corrupt Statehouse wouldn’t work on it. Childcare, on average for two kids, costs $25,000 a year to start, and just goes up from there. So if your electric bill is going up, housing, all of these things, groceries, gas. How does anyone do it? These moms need a break.”
Acton is the Democratic nominee for governor, facing Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in the Nov. 3 election. President Donald Trump rallied for Ramaswamy last week in Chillicothe.
The information contained in this story was obtained from Ohioans for Amy Acton, Dr. Amy Acton’s campaign committee.
