Promoting Affordable Childcare for Everyone Act

 Support Bill [H.R. 2900] University of Illinois-Springfield

Dear Representative Miller,

We are currently battling a child care desert epidemic. Recent studies, orchestrated by Center for American Progress, show “51 percent of people in the United States live in a child care desert” (CAP). There is a scarcity of child care options available to people, which discourages people from having families. Some families cannot afford to have only one parent working, even with federal assistance. At times two would need to work and if there is no child care nearby, what happens to their children? I realize some of your concerns align with a declining birth rate in America. If people felt like they had a strong foundation to support children while still living a decent life and providing their children with an adequate environment, they would be less likely to resort to medical procedures to end pregnancy. People cannot afford to have families with the expenses of childcare. Stated by the Pew Research Center, “In a given county, the median cost per child for paid care in 2018 was anywhere from 8.0% to 19.3% of the median household income in that county, depending on the age of the child, the type of child care program and the size of the county” (Leppert). I am sure that the median has changed after seven years, regardless child care costs are high and it does not include other expenses you may spend on a child.

For example, many parents who are ready to have children are just starting in their careers, or finishing their education.  They may fall in the bottom 30% of household incomes, which would leave them with an after-taxes-and-benefits income of less than $3,500 per month. After paying for their rent or mortgage, they might be left with less than $2,200 for all other expenses, and daycare for children ranges between $600 and $2,400 per month.  Given these economic realities, it should not be surprising that birth rates are declining and some young people still choose to end pregnancies for economic reasons.

With all being said, I would like you to support H.R. 2900 (Promoting Affordable Childcare for Everyone Act). If you are not convinced that this would be the best solution at this time, please write back or schedule a meeting to further discuss. If this is something that you also find passion in, please share it with your political allies. When the time comes, I ask that you consider supporting The Child Care for Every Community Act. It is a bill that provides universal child care for all children in America. For the majority, it would cap childcare costs at 7% of a parent’s income, but make it free for those with lower income. The act died a couple years ago and is planned to be reintroduced at some point. If you would like to get in touch with those leading the PACE Act, Representative Claudia Tenney and Brad Schneider are taking charge.

I appreciate you taking the time to read my letter. Child care is something I am passionate about, since I work at one and realize how important it is to the families. The relationships and bonds children make with their teacher demonstrate how all children should be cared for in that way. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas for the bill.

Thank you,

______________________

C: ________________

E: avatsandoval@gmail.com

Sources https://www.ffyf.org/resources/2025/09/118th-congress-bipartisan-child-care-legislation-addressi ng-supply-cost-accessibility-and-quality/

https://prekcaucus-castro.house.gov/about

https://tenney.house.gov/media/press-releases/congresswoman-tenney-reintroduces-promoting-af fordable-childcare-everyone-act#:~:text=Government%20Shutdown%20Resources-,Congresswo man%20Tenney%20Reintroduces%20the%20Promoting%20Affordable%20Childcare%20for%2 0Everyone%20Act,keep%20up%20with%20today's%20economy. https://childcaredeserts.org/2018/

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/10/25/5-facts-about-child-care-costs-in-the-us/

This is a fine letter.  You explain a problem and offer a solution.  It occurred to me that you are writing this letter to a very conservative Republican, and I wanted her to understand the sort of economic circumstances people have at the 30th percentile (almost the same as the mean income of people in the second quintile).  What does child care cost these days?  What do people at that income level earn these days?  I wanted to show her that at the level of having a household income at the 30th percentile, child care costs without subsidies or assistance would cost between 28% and 105% of monthly income after taxes, benefits (e.g., EITC and SNAP), and housing. Leaving very little for transportation, food, and other necessities of life. 

It's good that you pointed out that the cost of childcare would be covered by families with higher incomes, but everyone would have a cap, and the subsidies or vouchers to help lower-income households afford childcare would be means-tested.  This would be an important point to make with anyone who complains about excessive government spending (not just ultra-conservatives like Representative Miller—I also would question making childcare free to everyone if that meant subsidizing childcare expenses for families in the top 40% of the income distribution). 

You also ask for a meeting with Representative Miller.  Your tone is polite and respectful.  And you make a specific "ask" from her concerning specific legislation.  These are all good aspects of the letter. 

Advocacy Letter to help social work become more affordable

Dear Lindsey LaPointe,

My name is _____ ________ and as an aspiring social worker I am writing to ask for your support for the urgent need to transition all social work internships from unpaid to paid positions. This change is not only essential for upholding the social justice principles at the heart of our profession, but it is also a vital step toward strengthening the future social services workforce. I will be addressing three key points such as student debt, financial inequity, high cost of living and how they affect interns, and why it is good to have paid internships. Please oppose the continued practice of public universities in Illinois charging social work students tuition for their field placements and assigning students to internships and field placements where they work without any pay or compensation because it creates financial inequities and leave unpaid interns without essential labor protections.

Using the “principal beneficiary test,” police internships are assessed under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to see if interns qualify as employees who need to be paid. Although “for-profit” businesses must pay their employees under the FLSA, interns may not be considered as employees and are therefore not compelled to receive payment for their work. The FLSA principal beneficiary test applies to social work interns, because their placements are unpaid because they occur in non-profits and government agencies, which are generally exempt form FLSA wage requirements. I am advocating for the Fair Labor Standards Act to be changed so that it will classify interns as employees and be entitled to minimum wage.  

As a State Representative, I know you can't change the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, but Illinois should have a state-level law that does what I propose, and if agencies and universities cannot afford to let social work students do their field placements without paying tuition, nor can they pay stipends to those students, then I would like the state to provide funding to universities and agencies that help social work students gain expertise in field placements to reduce these costs for Illinois social work students.

Unpaid internships create financial hardships for interns in the real-world by requiring them to work for free while still needing to cover basic living expenses, and sometimes even pay for college credit. For example, I attend the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) as an undergraduate student majoring in social work. In addition to the internship credits (for which I must pay tuition), I’m taking out extra loans to pay for living expenses in a new city. Since I have an internship from Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm and class from 6:00 pm to 9:30 pm, I am unable to work part-time. This has created significant financial hardship for a position with no income. I continue to struggle with financial support for housing, food, transportation, and other expenses.

I have also spoken with peers who graduated with a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) and Master of Social Work (MSW) who are still in debt for more than $70,0000, which is made worse by hundreds of hours of unpaid labor. According to the news article by Metz & Bonila, “MSW students graduate with an average of $68,0000- $76,000 in student loans, burdening social workers and their families for decades after graduation.” Metz & Bonila also disscused how social work education in the U.S. is experiencing a decline in student enrollment across all degree levels and believe that paying social work students for their mandatory internships could help reverse these issues. 

Research has also shown that social work interns in the U.S. are not the only ones who face difficulties with unpaid internships. In the article, “This Unpaid Placement Makes You Poor,” Morley et al. (2023) argues how field education costs are also a burden for international social work interns. According to a study done in 2023 by Morley et al. Australian social work intern’s face financial difficulties during unpaid placements. The Morley et al. (2023) gathered data from 372 interns about their financial situation, income, and how they managed to support themselves during placements. According to the findings, 66% of interns are worried about their financial situation, 17% of interns go without food and other basic necessities, 50% of interns have a weekly spending deficit, and 25% of interns must work at least 20 hours a week to make ends meet (Morley et al., 2023). This demonstrates how the current placement structure is not financially sustainable for many students, potentially affecting their well-being and ability to complete their studies. 

In order to implement a change where social work internships are paid, we need to find a way to secure funding for these positions. We could start by getting various stakeholders, including academic institutions, government officials at both state and federal levels, and organizations that benefit from social work interns, to agree to contribute financially. Sources of funding could include public grants, funding from universities, or policy changes that mandate or incentivize paid internships. In the U.S. and Australia, Metz & Bonila, discussed how they are forming groups like “End Placement Poverty” and “Payment for Placements (P4P)” movements to demand that universities, government agencies, and internship sites start paying social work interns for their labor.

While internships serve as educational opportunities, paid interns would not only help alleviate financial issues but also improve the quality and future of the social work field by valuing student labor, attract a wider, more diverse pool of talent to the social work field, and address the long-term workforce shortage in social services because interns are more motivated and invested in their work, leading to better outcomes for clients and agencies. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Jasmine Gaines

References

Metz, E., & Bonila, P. O. (n.d.). Can paid internships save social work? Global Social Service Workforce Alliance. https://socialserviceworkforce.org/blog/can-paid-internships-save-social-work/

Morley, C., Hodge, L., Clarke, J., McIntyre, H., Mays, J., Briese, J., & Kosleck, T. (2023). This unpaid placement makes you poor: Australian social work students’ experiences of the financial burden of field education. Social Work Education, 43(4), 1039–1057. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2022.216150

US Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division. (2010). Fact sheet# 71: Internship programs under the fair labor standards act. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/71-flsa-internships

This is an example of issue advocacy, where you bring a problem to the attention of someone in government and suggest why the problem must be solved and make some general recommendations of how the problem might be solved.  The problem of unpaid internships and tuition expenses for students who must do field placements or practicums in non-profit or government sectors (including social workers, school teachers, and most nursing students, but also some political science and exercise science students) could be addressed at the federal level or at the state level.  You have decided to write your letter to a person in the Illinois General Assembly, so it's appropriate for you to emphasize the importance of state-level interventions to solve the problem.  Also, you wrote to a member of the state General Assembly who is herself a social worker, and that makes sense.  Maybe you could have written this letter to all three of the social workers in the General Assembly. 

I think you make a good point when you highlight declining numbers of students earning social work degrees just as the demand for qualified social workers is increasing. You also make a good moral argument about the unfairness of the situation. Although Representative LaPointe is a liberal (a progressive), so arguments based on care and justice ethics are likely to work best, if you included Haas (a Republican), you would probably have emphasized more the effort of social work students to become financially independent as self-reliant professionals, and said something more about the tens of thousands of dollars in student debt that newer social workers may cary as they enter the field, and how those debts might drive them from the social work field into fields using similar skills and paying significantly higher salaries (management in corporations, human resource officers, sales, etc.).