Nonprofit child care providers, parents, and others are asking state officials to allocated $45 million in funding as part of the state’s housing bond bill in order to renovate or build preschool and afterschool centers for children across the state.

 Currently, one of the primary sources of financing for child care providers who want to renovate or update their facilities is the Children’s Investment Fund, which is managed by the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC), a public-private partnership. The fund has provided $10 million in financing for facilities upgrades over the past 20 years, but advocated say more money is needed.

 "[Child care] providers want to ensure that their children have opportunities for healthy development and learning, but too often, those efforts are hampered by poor space," said Mav Pardee, program manager for the fund, in a statement.  "If they had greater access to capital resources, they could build space to support high quality programming. We’ve been pleased to help so many centers improve their physical plant, but we know there many still waiting for resources."

 In 2011, the Children’s Investment Fund released a study that assessed the state of childhood education facilities in Massachusetts.  The research identified capital needs in both the physical condition and layout of many sites that undermine the Commonwealth’s ambitious educational policy goals. 

 Representatives from the United Way of Mass Bay and Merrimack Valley, the Greater Lawrence Community Action Council and the Massachusetts Association for Early Care and Education plan to testify in support of the bill at a hearing on Beacon Hill Thursday.