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"We made a promise to these early childhood educators a few years ago. It was a lot to get them to trust us to say that the government is going to do what they said they would do. But also when we think about the child care sector in general, it's super important to the economy ... [and] to the workforce. It's super important as it lays the foundation for all the education that might happen, and yet these workers are the lowest paid on the totem pole, usually making minimum wage. I strongly believe if you're taking care of the workforce and everybody else's children, you should be able to earn enough to take care of your own families as well."

Added At-Large Council member Christina Henderson, “I do disagree with this ‘shared sacrifice’ part because it feels like we’re proposing to balance this budget on the backs of Black and brown women.”

The child care subsidy is top of mind for many lawmakers, including Council member Christina Henderson, who became emotional reacting to the cuts the council chamber. The fund enables early education providers to be paid on par with public school teachers. ""It feels as though we are proposing to balance this budget on the backs of Black and Brown women in the child care sector," Henderson said.

Council member Christina Henderson (I-At Large) pinpointed Bowser’s decision to slash the Pay Equity Fund, adding that she disagreed that the budget proposal represents a “shared sacrifice”...It feels as though we are proposing to balance this budget on the backs of Black and Brown women in the child-care sector with the elimination of the early childhood pay equity fund,” Henderson said. She added later: “If you want people downtown, if you want people in their offices, there has to be a stable, affordable child-care system in order for it to all work."

On Wednesday, a teary-eyed D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson (I-At large) spoke on the council dais in support of the equity fund. She described the proposed cut as an affront to Black and brown female early childhood educators for whom adequate compensation had long been an issue. “Childcare is not just about education, it’s an economic issue. It’s a workforce issue,” Henderson said. “We’ve limped along for years with minimal government assistance and the bottom fell out in the pandemic. Women left the childcare market because the math didn’t work. In the District, we said we would do something different. We’re the envy of the country. It’s not perfect but the suggestion that we go back to Square One is disappointing.”

D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson, I-At large, was overcome with emotion during her opening statement, castigating the proposal as balancing the budget "on the backs of Black and brown women and the child care sector." Bowser's budget slashes the District's Pay Equity Fund, which would cover pay raises for child care workers, the Washington City Paper reported.

Council member Christina Henderson, at-large independent and a former D.C. Public Schools employee, said some expenditures will be difficult to trim. She noted that the police department’s 2023 overspending resulted from overtime pay for an understaffed force and the State Superintendent for Education’s overspending came from increased special education needs as the city’s immigrant population grows. “The public school system is one agency that’s required to serve children, no matter how many show up after we budget for it,” Ms. Henderson said. “With the migrant crisis, we’re a very transient city.” On the other hand, she said, she has worked to “level expectations” among constituents for other funding requests and the council must adjust to reduced revenue “and be responsible about it.”

“Are misdemeanors not important enough to them to prosecute?” wondered At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson.

The D.C. Council unanimously approved the Extended Students’ Right to Home or Hospital Instruction Amendment Act on Tuesday during the second reading of the bill. Earlier this year, D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson (I-At large) told The Informer that the original law around home/hospital instruction, as interpreted by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, excluded students who were parents. She said that failure to move ahead with the legislative change could impede student parents’ efforts to continue their education before and after childbirth.

“You’re laying a lot on this recovery plan,” council member Christina Henderson (I-At Large) observed during the hearing, in what appeared to be a friendly chiding, after Pettigrew mentioned it several times.

[Councilmember Christina] Henderson, a Recreation, Libraries, and Youth Affairs committee member who also chairs the council’s Committee on Health, told The Informer that she’s had conversations with Department of Behavioral Health officials seeking similar resources for non-committed youth. Their RFP, as she recalled, called for providers located within a 50-mile radius of the District.

The D.C. Council is considering a bill that would allow expecting and new parents in public schools to continue their education at home or in the hospital. “Whether or not a student who is pregnant gets to continue their education shouldn’t be based on the feelings or the empathy of a school leader,” she says. The bill is an amendment to the Students’ Right to Home or Hospital Instruction Act of 2020. That law, which went into effect in the 2022-2023 school year, required every local education agency (LEA) to create an at-home or at-hospital instruction program for students with health conditions that required them to miss school for ten or more days. Under the current law, a “health condition” is defined as a “physical or mental illness, injury, or impairment that prevents a student from participating in the day-to-day activities typically expected during school attendance.” Henderson’s bill would amend the definition of a “health condition” to explicitly include pre-birth complications, childbirth, and postpartum recovery.