EDITORIAL: Increase subsidies for child care

March 15-- Mar. 15--The issue of affordable child care has been a challenge to families for decades.

A 2013 Census Bureau report documented how weekly child care costs for a family with a working mother increased 70 percent from 1985 to 2011. During the same span, median weekly wages hardly advanced.

Nearly one-third of parents who participated in a 2016 poll by National Public Radio, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health said child care costs are a problem and most members of that group described it as a serious issue.

So, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and other Senate Democrats were on target by recently reintroducing a bill to limit the amount many working parents would spend on child care.

The bill would cap child care expenses for parents earning 150 percent of their state's median income at 7 percent of personal earnings. That would make Pennsylvania families earning up to $114,000 annually eligible for assistance. Families earning 75 percent of their state's median income or less would be exempt from child care expenses. The bill also would expand a child care tax credit for families.

Because of difficulties finding quality, affordable child care, an increasing number of low-income families depend on relatives or unlicensed caregivers, studies show. Quality child care helps kids learn, thrive and become more productive. It also is linked to reductions in poverty and crime, along with higher wages and productivity among working adults.

The legislation, which was originally introduced in 2017 but gained little traction in Congress, would provide needed help for children and working parents. Congress should pass it this time.

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