Gov. Josh Shapiro, state lawmakers and child care leaders in Allegheny County on Monday touted the recently-passed 2025-26 bipartisan budget deal for providing tens of millions of dollars aimed at tackling a child care workforce crisis that’s left 3,000 jobs unfilled across Pennsylvania.

After a roughly four-month stalemate, lawmakers approved and Mr. Shapiro signed a $50.1 billion budget that the governor’s office says takes direct action addressing staffing crunches in child care. Provisions include a new $25 million retention and recruitment bonus program and a $7.5 million bump in rates for the state-funded Pre-K Counts to help providers boost wages and stabilize the workforce.

The governor told a crowd gathered for a news conference at Riverview Children’s Center in Verona that the

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