Maslowski
Looking ahead to the 2024 legislative session, early childhood education and workforce development are top priorities for Aspire Johnson County.
Aspire, the county’s chamber of commerce, announced on Monday that supporting quality early childhood education, along with expanding and supporting creative workforce incentives, would be their priorities for the 2024 session of the Indiana General Assembly. Lawmakers convene in Indianapolis on Jan. 8 for the short, non-budgetary session, which will wrap up by mid-March.
Aspire’s Business Advocacy Council researches and advises the chamber’s board of directors on policy positions and priorities. The chamber is represented at the Indiana Statehouse by Torchbearer Public Affairs.
Over the last few years, the private sector has made “dramatic adjustments and investments” in talent recruiting and retention efforts. Employers have increased wages, flexed scheduling, adopted hybrid work settings and invested in workplace culture, to support employee needs, wellness and engagement, Aspire officials said in a news release.
Despite this, some statewide challenges remain as obstacles to Indiana achieving its “full potential” in terms of labor participation rate, average wage and economic output.
The availability of affordable, quality early childhood education, continues to be a challenge for working parents and employers. This is Aspire’s first priority issue.
A lack of spots for early childhood education is not just a state issue, but a Johnson County issue as well.
“We are not meeting demand in Johnson County,” said Christian Maslowski, Aspire president and CEO. “We know that even when you include some of the smaller home-based operations, we’re just not meeting demand. We hear from parents, we hear from employers that it continues to be a problem.”
Early childhood education is also expensive, with costs including insurance, the centers themselves and everything that goes into taking care of young children for a day, Maslowksi said.
“Unfortunately, the price point becomes prohibitive to some. So while there’s not enough seats, it’s also just too expensive for others,” he said.
During the 2023 session, lawmakers passed legislation to try to address early childhood issues. The On My Way Pre-K pilot program was made permanent, the threshold for family subsidies was increased and new state grants were created for employers to implement local early childhood education solutions, according to Aspire officials.
As the effects of the programs play out, chamber officials say they will work during the session to support other programmatic and regulatory opportunities to increase available seats.
Aspire officials say there are studies that show children who are ready for kindergarten are more likely to be reading at the third-grade level by the end of third grade, and more likely to graduate high school. A strong educational foundation is critical, and state officials should focus on quality and affordability, along with collecting data and providing different types of providers.
Access to affordable quality childcare is also an important recruitment tool and assists with the labor participation rate, the chamber says. A child placed in a stable educational environment provides more certainty and stability for their parents in the workforce, according to Aspire.
As for Aspire’s second priority, workforce development, chamber officials say the issue is more broad. The chamber “supports diverse and creative workforce development policies” that’ll incentivize employers and employees, they said in a news release.
Workforce development is the top driver of business success for employers across Indiana, which is why it is imperative the state have a talent pipeline to not only fill jobs but also to retain highly qualified and skilled workers already in the workforce, according to Aspire.
“Companies, obviously, are looking for the right site … but the first question that they’re asking about is what’s the workforce? What’s the labor force like? What’s the talent pool like?” Maslowksi said. “And that goes for existing companies who are wanting to add a new product line or who are wanting to grow and expand services.”
The chamber supported several career readiness efforts during the last legislative session, including House Enrolled Act 1002, which among other things will expand work-based learning in Indiana high schools. Aspire is also actively partnering with the local K-12 school systems to support the implementation of the new state programs and requirements.
Next year, chamber officials plan to identify opportunities to help smooth the implementation of the 2023 bills.
“We’re finding a couple of nuances in some of the bills that are a little, they might be cumbersome for larger corporations, in particular, to follow through and to enact,” Maslowksi said. ” And so we’ll be having conversations with legislators this session about some of those.”
For example, in HEA 1002, there’s a new requirement that juniors and seniors have an opportunity to meet with an employer, college representative or an intermediary who is able to speak about various jobs and career paths in the local economy. Aspire already does this, he said.
It also requires that the students meet in groups of no larger than five individuals at a time, Maslowksi said. With the number of seniors and juniors in Johnson County, this is a tall task so the chamber plans to talk to legislators about revisiting the bill, he said.
Aspire also plans to build on connecting local employers with local teachers and students, the chamber says.
Chamber officials say they support policies that can include, but are not limited to tax credits, career counseling, remote workforce incentives, tuition assistance, licensure reciprocity, investment in training, work-based learning opportunities and affordable housing initiatives.
Maslowksi says sometimes lawmakers ask about whether a space should be something the government is involved in. He respects this “tremendously” because the government shouldn’t be involved in everything, but sometimes there are things the private sector can’t solve that are statewide or countywide challenges, he said.
“Those are places where the government can be a partner, where we do want to invite government into being a partner because there could be policies, there could be regulations that are getting in the way, or not getting in the way but if they were adjusted could be a boost to solving these challenges,” Maslowksi said. “That’s what we want to look for this session.”
