Student is concerned about cost of childcare and looks at New York plan to make it affordable.

 New York Governor, Kathy Hochul, and United States Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, announced that families would be able to apply for child care assistance through an online portal on July 19, 2024. This would make it much easier for families to know if they are able to receive benefits from the Child Care Assistance Program. Before this portal was available, most families in New York had to apply with a paper form. While the state already provides 125,000 children with child care assistance, there are probably many more families that could use the help of the Child Care Assistance Program. Many families who receive benefits from the CCAP have 90 percent of their child care costs covered. Many families will be eligible to receive benefits if the household income is 85 percent of the state median income or below. This portal will help families know if they are eligible to receive benefits and also apply for CCAP. 

I hope this new tool will allow families to get access to the help they need. Child care can be extremely expensive, especially in today’s age, where both parents usually work full-time. One of my friends spends hundreds of dollars a week sending her child to daycare. I feel that this is probably the case for many families. The parents both work forty hours a week and end up spending one of their paychecks on child care. This can cause parents to decide to stay at home with their children because it makes more economic sense for them. I do not think parents should have to choose between their job or child care. Families might not even know that they are eligible to receive child care assistance, and this online portal could help them determine if they should apply. I think this service could really benefit those that live in rural areas. Coming from a rural area myself, I know that there are very few services available in small towns. Many people have to drive 30 minutes or more to reach any sort of service that could help them. When I read that most families had to apply on a paper form before the online portal was active, I was shocked. For many families in rural areas, they might not have access to or know where to go to fill out this form. It might also take months for the paper form to be processed and for the families to get the assistance they need. This new online portal will hopefully speed up the process. In my Human Behavior and the Social Environment class, we talked a lot about free or low-cost child care. Many other countries provide free child care for their citizens. And while I acknowledge that most of these countries have a fraction of the population we have here in the United States, I hope that we can replicate some of those programs. Families in America deserve to have reliable access to affordable child care.

Reference

https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-launches-digital-portal-help-new-york-state-deliver-free-or-low-cost-child

Illinois has the goal of providing access to “high-quality early childhood education and care services for all children from birth to age five.”.  There was a commission that looked into how to achieve this, and they had a report out in 2021, and the Governor is following through on the recommendations of that commission.  But, I haven't followed this to see how it is going.

https://www.illinois.gov/news/press-release.27179.html

https://idec.illinois.gov/goecd/governors-early-childhood-funding-commission.html

Student wants the mayor to urge the school district to provide more pre-k early childhood care

 Dear Mayor Misty Buscher,

My name is [Student Name]. I am a 23-year-old college student at UIS. I am passionate about supporting women accomplish their dreams, even as mothers. I do not believe that their lives should be put on hold because they are mothers. With this being said, it is very difficult to find childcare in Springfield. Although we have over 110 providers of day care and childcare in Springfield, including large ones such as The Learning Nook, The Goddard School, and Calvary Day Care, most of these places are run out of homes, and have a low capacity. Therefore, the task of locating a daycare or childcare center that has a convenient location, a price that parents can afford, and a space for one’s child, can discourage a mother. As she calls down the list, she will find the most places are full, and if not full, they may be too far away or too expensive. Nationally, about a third of parents seeking formal child care are unable to find a place that meets their needs.  I believe that we can do something about this, and make it easier for mothers to find safe, high-quality, affordable daycare in Springfield. 

Here are some examples of ways we could help this issue: 

1. Pre-K in district 186 schools, a public day care for children aged 3-5;
2. More affordable daycare, either with subsidies to providers, tax credits to parents, or vouchers for parents.
3. Ensure the Illinois Care for Kids website (https://www.illinoiscaresforkids.org/) is up-to-date and has accurate information about daycare in our area.
4. Programs to recruit, screen, and train more volunteers to help with day care provision, working as assistants and part-time volunteers with the paid and licensed staff.
5. A regional “clearinghouse” referral service that specializes in helping families find childcare to meet their needs, with staff who are intimately familiar with the opportunities and conditions at the 100+ providers of day care and child care in Sangamon County, and outreach for families with children receiving SNAP or SSI benefits. 

 Because private childcare is so expensive, and most daycare facilities are too, it is very hard for moms, especially single moms, to afford childcare for them to be able to work. I want to help rectify this. The way that I find most quickly effective is pre-k in district 186 schools.

Luckily, this work is already in the making. The Birth to Five Organization (https://www.birthtofiveil.com/about) is creating counsels and committees to rectify this issue. They are working to provide the following: understanding each community’s needs regarding the parents and the children, provide and understand mental health needs to improve overall wellness of the children, build relationships with local stakeholders, and support each community based on their unique needs based on the assessment provided. Having pre-k within the district 186 school systems will ensure that parents, especially single moms, can still go out and have a good job to support their family. It is very difficult to get back on your feet when all your income must go straight to bills and childcare.

With District 186 providing day care, we can ensure better livelihoods for families and help minimize poverty. I believe it will help many people in many different situations. Again, childcare is extremely overpriced, and oftentimes out of reach even if the family can afford it. Most waitlists are so long that the parents are unable to send the child for that year.  This creates situations of entrapment for the parents involved. We want freedom for a prosperous life for all.

Although as mayor you may have no direct say over the decisions of District 186, you could support the district in making this decision by proposing some sort of city partnership with the school district, and if you agree that this is a good policy, you can use your informal influence to suggest and advocate for such a policy with the school board. 

Thank you for your time, [Student Name]

Affordable high-quality day care and child care should be supported in Springfield and our nation more widely.  Here are ten resources I have used to inform me about this issue, and you may also find them useful.

Maya Jasinska’s editorial for the Bipartisan Policy Center from February 1st of 2024, Can CDCTC Policies Increase Child Care Supply?

Julie Trivitt, Avery Nims, and Malachi Nichols wrote a report for Heartland Forward (a very conservative think tank) published on September 21, 2023 that is worth considering: “Child Care Policy Efficiency: What States Can Do to Promote Affordable, Accessible, High-Quality Child Care.”

Rasheed Malik wrote a report for the Center for American Progress (associated with the Democratic Party) published on May 24, 2021: Growing the Economy Through Affordable Child Care. 

The White House issued a report on July 18, 2023: “Improving Access, Affordability, and Quality in the Early Care and Education (ECE) Market”

Child Care Awareness of America supports the existing system of tax credits and subsidies to support affordable day care. 

District 186 has a page about pre-kindergarten in our district. 

The Illinois State Board of Education provides a page about early childhood education. 

First Five Years Fund is another organization advocating for early childhood education and child care.

Gabrielle Pepin and John C. Austin wrote a commentary for the Brookings Institute (moderate to liberal non-partisan think-tank) on February 13, 2023: “With federal child care legislation abandoned, it’s up to states to help working families.”

Joya Misra (a professor at Mass Amherst) wrote a brief paper that was published in The Conversation US on May 11, 2021: “US parents pay nearly double the ‘affordable’ cost for child care and preschool”

An advocacy letter recommending huge increases in child care support

Child Care and the Workforce

I am writing today to bring your attention to an important matter. Wanting the best for your child’s safety, care, and wellbeing is the number one priority in any parent’s mind. Unfortunately, “The United States is among the lowest in the developed world in the early childhood care we provide” (Friedman, 2014). Parents need comfort and consolation that their children will be well taken care of when going to their jobs. Parents should be able to trust that their country’s expectation and standards for childcare, regardless of the city and/or state, are more than satisfactory. To many parents’ dismay, the childcare system in the United States is below subpar. 

Though Americans spend more on childcare than in other developed countries (and those countries actually provide excellent childcare), “the majority of American day care providers ranked fair or poor and only 10% were deemed of high quality” and “the cost of care has doubled since the 1980s, according to the Census Bureau” (Friedman, 2014). Many parents have been stopped or greatly restricted in their careers due to their need to parent their children because of the great lack of decent childcare. A recent study published in March 2019, examined a group of about 2,000 Amazon employees with younger children and “argues that a lack of affordable childcare has prevented talented women from progressing in their careers” and “these mothers are ‘tired of seeing colleagues quit because they can’t find childcare’” (Schochet, 2019). Amazon is typical of American workplaces. Parents nationwide have struggled with this for too long.

Our lack of good childcare forces many parents to leave their jobs due to needing to take care of their children. There’s also an increase in one parent working and the other staying home to be a full-time caregiver and not even working with the degrees that they’ve earned to fulfill life-long dream careers. To make matters worse, good quality childcare is expensive, especially when having multiple children. Fortunately, all hope is not lost for these parents.

The two largest federal programs that provide free or subsidized childcare are The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) and Head Start (HS). These federal programs are made for low-income families and parents who are still trying to pursue their careers with younger children. The CCDBG is the biggest monetary source of federal funding for childcare assistance. It funds childcare subsidies provided by states for low-income families. The other federal program, Head Start, helps to ensure that children get high quality early education in addition to health and social services (Schochet, 2019). 

These programs need more funding. They need to be able to help more families. They’ve made such an impact and helped so many families, but more families need such assistance. Approximately one million low-income children and their families are helped annually, but in 2018 over four million persons lived in poor families with related children under age six (Semega et al., 2019, Table B-2). Though these programs have helped many families through “promoting maternal labor force participation” and have been having “positive child outcomes” (Schochet, 2019), they need to include more families in their served population, and need the funding to be able to do so. Many more families and parents need this assistance. Sadly, “only a small portion of families who need assistance paying for childcare receive it...about one-third of eligible 3- to 5-year-olds, while Early Head Start serves seven percent of eligible children under age 3” (Schochet, 2019).

In conclusion, a very select amount of families receive assistance with childcare and so many more need it. Please help support and help these families that are in need. Parents are struggling and unable to fully fulfill their responsibilities and duties, and children are suffering in poor quality childcare facilities and not receiving the appropriate attention and care they deserve. Recently, in the FY 2020 budget, the Federal government appropriated $7.7 billion for the CCDBG and $11.6 billion for Head Start (Joughin, 2019).  It seems to me a more appropriate level of funding would be $20 billion for CCDBG and $35 billion for Head Start.

References

Friedman, S. D. (2014, August 7). 7 Policy Changes America Needs So People Can Work and Have Kids. https://hbr.org/2013/11/7-policy-changes-america-needs-so-people-can-work-and-have-kids 

Joughin, C. (2019). Here’s the latest on federal funding for early learning and care for FY2020. First Five Years Fund. https://www.ffyf.org/heres-the-latest-on-federal-funding-for-early-learning-and-care-for-fy20201/

Schochet, L. (2019, March 28). The Child Care Crisis Is Keeping Women Out of the Workforce. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/early-childhood/reports/2019/03/28/467488/child-care-crisis-keeping-women-workforce/ 

Semega, J., Kollar, M. Creamer, J., & Mohanty, A. (2019). Income and Poverty in the United States: 2018. U.S. Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2019/demo/p60-266.pdf