Thousands of child care centers are at risk of closing, here's why:

by Amanda Henderson, Photojournalist: Ricky Moreno

Wed, September 13th 2023, 2:26 AM UTC

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - JANUARY 28: Children wave their hands at a private nursery school January 28, 2005 in Glasgow, Scotland. The average price of pre-school care has increased over the past year, sending child care prices to an average of GBP200 in parts of the southeast. Many working parents in the UK have called for pre-school childcare subsidies such as those in France where nearly 100% of three-year-olds are in pre-school education, despite the fact that school attendance is not compulsory until they turn five. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

SAN ANTONIO — Thousands of Texas child care centers could soon close their doors as federal funds are set to end.

"They do flashcards they do Sign Language, Spanish, English," Over the Rainbow Christian Learning Center’s Director Elizabeth Medina said.

It's all about learning at Over the Rainbow Christian Learning Center.

"Here we teach them cognitive skills," Medina said.

The child care center is a four decade labor of love for Medina.

With more than $20,000,000,000 in federal child care funds set to end on September 30, 2023 Medina’s doors could soon shut for good.

“By the end of the year, I'm either going to close or sell one or the other because we're not able to keep up,” Medina said.

Texas chose not to include a $2,300,000,000 proposal for child care in their budget.

Medina said the lack of available money puts her in a tough spot.

“I will tell you [these supplies are] grant money. This is where we're we need we need to be able to have things to develop these children if we don't have these things to develop these children. How can we teach? I pay here in this place over $10,000 a year just on taxes. I pay another $15,000 just on liability insurance,” Medina said.

The Century Foundation said according to their study, more than 3,000 child care centers could be at risk of closing their doors permanently if these funds go away.

That will impact more than 300,000 children.

“This is really going to hurt, you know, families, child care workers, and even the state economy. Employers will lose $961 million a year, is what we found in our report,” Laura Valle-Gutierrez with The Century Foundation said.

They also found without the funds 64 percent of the childcare centers would have closed.

It’s something Medina has already seen happen over the past few years.

“Two years ago, in San Antonio alone, we had 666 daycares, we now have less than half of that,” Medina said.

Congress could consider a final push to keep the federal grant money going. If nothing happens Medina said her concern is for the families she has taught for generations.

“I know that a lot of mothers saying I'm just going to quit, and I'm gonna stay home, and we're gonna have to go backtrack,” Medina said.

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