Pritzker Lays Out Free College, Free Child Care as Second Term Priorities
Governor JB Pritzker did interviews with Chicago reporters Tuesday after announcing his run for re-election Monday.
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Laying out his plans for a second term Tuesday, Governor JB Pritzker said he supports free college to in-state students of working class families, free child care, and universal preschool.
“I think that every family that earns a median income or below—that’s about $63,000, $64,000—ought to be able to afford to go to college. In fact, it ought to be free for their kids to go to college in Illinois.” (Crain’s)
Pritzker told Paris Schutz of WTTW that he wants to expand state-supported childcare and invest in Universal Pre-K.
“We’ve gotta make sure that we’re providing childcare for everyone.” (WTTW)
Pritzker said he wanted to start by expanding qualifications for subsidized childcare to 300% of the poverty level. Under recent legislation, people within 250% of the poverty level can’t pay more than 7% of their income on childcare. (That’s around $65,000 per year limiting childcare costs to around $400 per month. That’s quite a deal for anyone who has ever looked into daycare.)
Pritzker didn’t identify the hard part: how to pay for it. He did say he doesn’t plan to introduce another graduated income tax constitutional amendment.