Reformers look at that industry and see several problems. And some send their kids to the day care centers and smaller licensed home-based providers that make up the formal child care industry. Others recruit family members, friends, or neighbors, paid or unpaid, to watch their children. In the United States, in the years before kids are sent off to school, families are basically on their own in deciding what to do with them, in an economy and culture where both parents are increasingly expected to work.
“This one I worry about.” The child care status quo “I’ve looked at a number of government programs over the years and usually I think there’s a way to make them work,” says Marc Goldwein of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. One weird trick to fix our broken child care system And there’s another catch: After 2027, the whole program would vanish unless a future Congress and president choose to pass a new law extending it. Ramping up supply is easier said than done, though. “That’s why this bill lowers more and more families’ child care costs over the first three years, while prioritizing helping states invest in opening new providers, increasing wages for the early childhood workforce, and adding slots.” The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Patty Murray (D-WA), one of the architects of the plan, said. “The status quo of rising child care costs and waiting lists is not working for parents, and to fix it you do have to tackle the problems of cost and supply at once,” an aide for Sen. That’s why the bill also sends billions for states to use to increase the supply of child care over the next few years. “We don’t want a subsidy to nowhere,” says one Democratic aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, alluding to the worry that parents will be promised assistance they can’t actually use anywhere due to shortages. The bill’s drafters are aware of these concerns. Matt Roth/Washington Post via Getty Images A teacher zips up the coat of a young child at Little Flowers Early Childhood and Development Center in Baltimore, Maryland, on January 12, 2021. They’d have to pay any higher costs themselves, and could see their current child care arrangements thrown into chaos as changes ripple through the sector. That’s because, the way the plan’s phase-in is designed, those families wouldn’t be eligible for subsidies just yet - and many won’t be until 2025. But price hikes would be a particular problem for middle- and upper-middle-class families. If the supply of providers can’t keep up with this new demand, that’s a recipe for shortages or price hikes. The plan would “dramatically increase demand for child-care services as newly subsidized users pour into the sector,” Matt Bruenig, founder of the People’s Policy Project, a left-leaning think tank, writes at the Atlantic. Since many of those families currently don’t use licensed child care, that would mean significant new demand for care that’s already difficult or expensive to secure in much of the country. Per the plan, low- and lower-middle income families would get generous federal subsidies to help them purchase child care at licensed providers right away. “It guarantees families access to affordable child care, something that does not currently exist.”īut critics of a variety of political persuasions - left, centrist, and conservative - say the plan could actually drive up prices for many parents, and may lead to a shortage of licensed child care options as millions of parents enter an already-crowded market for the first time. “This is game changing, and it’s gotten lost in the shuffle at times,” says Julie Kashen, director for women’s economic justice at the Century Foundation. The bill would also steer an influx of federal cash to boost wages for child care workers and spur the opening or expansion of child care facilities. The plan aims to help millions of families with children under age 6 get affordable child care for the first time, funding most or all of the cost of their care at licensed providers.
It could be its most challenging to implement, and politically perilous, as well. The child care plan in President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act is arguably the bill’s most ambitious proposal.
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