The future of the Career and Wage Ladder is at stake. The DEL has proposed that it be cut from the state budget. Without the Ladder, not only will Centers currently on the Ladder lose funding, all of the Centers that want to be on the Ladder won't have a chance to do so. Research has shown this program improves quality. Losing this program will negatively impact child care providers and the children for whom they care every day.  Clearly, this is not the direction that early childhood eductors want to go.