Juneau preschoolers continue Valentine’s Day tradition with love notes for lawmakers
Preschoolers, childcare providers and parents flanked the hallways of the Alaska Capitol leading into the House and Senate chambers.
The children gave handmade valentines to lawmakers as they filed in. They were on a mission, explained Southeast Alaska Association for the Education of Young Children Executive Director Blue Shibler.
“There’s people in this building that just do really boring work all day, and they don’t get a lot of cheer and valentines, and so your job is to cheer them up today by giving them one of these cool valentines,” Shibler told the kids. “And you can say, ‘Happy Valentine’s Day.’”
Shibler said this is a longstanding tradition in Juneau. Their message: “have a heart for kids.” She said they’re looking for policy level support for child care across the state.
“The child care sector is struggling. The cost of care keeps going up and up and up, and operators can’t pass those costs on to parents, because child care is already really hard to afford for them,” Shibler said. “And so our work, fundamentally, is in trying to help lawmakers understand that public subsidy is needed to help childcare businesses thrive.”
The visit comes as lawmakers are hashing out education policy with Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The House Education Committee is currently considering House Bill 69, which includes a permanent increase to education funding.
Rep. Andi Story, a Juneau Democrat, loved seeing the children.
“It’s just a really energy boost, because you see those little people, and that’s who we’re working for up here at the Capitol,” she said.
Story co-chairs the House Education Committee and said she’s keeping them in mind as she works through education policy this year.
“It means that we’ll be doing smart education funding policy where it needs to be a permanent increase, and it needs to be inflation proof for the next few years,” she said.
Michelle Adams is one of the parents in the hallway. She said she was glad the children had the chance to go into the Capitol.
“The preschool kids having this type of learning experience is just phenomenal. To like, be there, not just read the stories about it and hear the words, but actually be there. That was amazing,” Adams said.
Her kid, three-year-old Izabella Adams-Hall, wore a red dress with a matching bow in her hair. She got to shake the hand of Rep. Dan Saddler, R-Eagle River, after delivering a bright pink valentine.
The group dropped a final batch of love notes off at the governor’s office, who was too busy to meet them in person. After a well deserved snack break, they made their way back to their respective day cares across the city.