5 takeaways:
➀ President Joe Biden’s decision to include federal assistance for child care as part of his infrastructure legislation drew cheers from parent advocates and fury from some conservatives. Child care has long had bipartisan support, but some conservative politicians called the bill “socialist,” said children are better off at home, or argued that child care funding should not be considered as national infrastructure, like roads and bridges. Progressives said the bill does not go nearly far enough, since lack of funding for child care and early childhood education hurts families and depresses GDP growth. Barry Ford, president of Council for a Strong America, said research shows that lack of infant and toddler care alone (not including after-school care for children 5 and older) is costing the U.S. $57 billion a year in lost wages, productivity and revenue. A new infographic by ReadyNation breaks down the effects by state.
➁ The child care crunch was acute, even before the pandemic. “Infant and toddler care costs more than in-state public college tuition in 30 states and the District of Columbia,” Ford said. “Over half of Americans live in child care deserts, where children who need child care outnumber licensed slots three-to-one.” In rural America, it’s 60%. Meanwhile, many child care workers earn poverty wages (the average is $25,500 per year) and one-third of them rely on public assistance to provide for their own families, Ford said. Stereotypes about child care centers as big institutions are wrong: Nearly two-third of kids aged birth to 5 are cared for in the homes of friends, family or neighbors, Ford said.
➂ Paying for child care has been considered a family’s responsibility ever since President Richard Nixon vetoed a bill in 1971 — but the pandemic “shecession” might be changing that. A universal child care bill introduced by then-Sen. Walter Mondale sailed through both houses of Congress in 1971 but was vetoed by Nixon, who said it would put government on “the side of communal approaches to child rearing [and] against the family-centered approach.” Fifty years later, “we’re seeing real momentum behind overhauling the child care system,” said Alisha Haridasani Gupta of The New York Times. “The pandemic revealed that the current patchwork wasn’t really working for anyone, not parents, providers or employers.” A study published in April found that out of 28 developed countries, the employment gender gap widened the most in America and Canada during the pandemic in large part because of the lack of child care.
➃ In newsrooms, there isn’t a beat for that — but Gupta said there should be. “Because the child care … system has never kind of received the national attention that it’s suddenly getting now, newsrooms have never dedicated reporters and editors to this as a beat,” she said. “Many reporters, not all, but many who are covering this space are learning about its nuances and its histories and intricacies as we go. I’m speaking from experience.” Gupta said her child care stories have run in the business, national and politics pages “when actually, it’s all of those things.”
➄ Congress is willing to spend — but who should get the money? Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan and the American Families Plan both contain federal subsidies for child care, the latter estimating to cost $225 billion over a decade. “So a lot of the debate is around, where should the money go?” said Ylan Mui, congressional correspondent for CNBC. “Should the money go to parents? Should the money go to child care providers? Should the money go to businesses in order to incentivize them to provide benefits to parents, because it’s working parents that some people believe are facing most of this struggle and the juggle?” Republicans and Democrats are at loggerheads over universal preschool, but may forge a consensus on giving no-strings-attached cash payments to parents to use on child care or other needs as they see fit, she said. In the states, models for paying for child care differ dramatically, and the red-blue divide isn’t as pronounced on that issue, said Naomi Martin of The Boston Globe. “Alabama, West Virginia and Oklahoma are three red states — and are three of the best states in terms of quality and access for families to publicly funded preschool.” She recommended the National Institute for Early Education Research’s The State of the Preschool Yearbook for details.
Speakers:
Barry D. Ford, President, Council for a Strong America
Alisha Haridasani Gupta, staff writer, New York Times
Naomi Martin, Education Reporter, Boston Globe; Staff Writer on the Glob’s Great Divide Team
Ylan Mui, Congressional Correspondent, CNBC
This program is funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the Heising-Simons Foundation. NPF is solely responsible for the content.
