Drazan’s 2020 Walkout Stalled Critical Funding for Southern Oregon Child care Provider
[Medford, OR] Yesterday Democratic nominee for Governor Tina Kotek visited a preschool in Medford and discussed the importance of expanding access to affordable child care and early learning opportunities with Rep. Pam Marsh (D – Southern Jackson County) and Sunny Spicer, Executive Director of the Children’s Museum of Southern Oregon.
As Governor, Tina will push to expand access to child care by:
- Investing in Oregon’s child care system to restore child care capacity that was lost during the pandemic;
- Maximizing federal dollars to expand access to pre-K for Oregon families; and
- Improving access to infant and toddler care by cutting the red tape that limits where home-based child care providers can operate.
- More details on Tina’s education and child care priorities available here.
Tina also championed funding in 2020 to help complete the new building for the preschool and Children’s Museum in Medford, but Republican Christine Drazan led the legislative walkout that delayed the critical funding. As the Medford Mail Tribune’s Editorial Board wrote at the time:
“The real damage done by the walkout this time wasn’t the death of the cap-and-trade bill. It was the failure to pass a variety of spending measures, including a $45 million bill to open homeless shelters across the state without regard to zoning, planning and design rules. The measure, which was advancing with bipartisan support before the walkout, included $2.5 million for Medford.
“Another bill would have given a $2 million grant to help Kid Time Children’s Museum prepare to move into the former Carnegie Library building in Medford.
“A package of bills to address the state’s wildfire preparedness, which is tremendously important to this part of the state, also fell victim to the walkout.”
“Yesterday’s visit was an important reminder that Tina Kotek is the only candidate who we can trust to deliver for Oregon families,” said Rep. Marsh. “Meanwhile, Christine Drazan’s decision to walk off the job left child care providers without the funding to get our families the support that they need. Drazan’s right-wing tactics have already proved that she will take Oregon in the wrong direction.”
