EDITORIAL: It's time for Congress to address child care

Columbian - 12/23/2021

Dec. 23—If you are the parent of a toddler, you already know this: Quality child care is very expensive.

A quick check of the internet shows that local day care centers charge in the vicinity of $400 per week for infants, $350 for toddlers, and $300 for preschoolers.

To put it another way, that's up to $20,000 per year, or 40 percent more than the cost of in-state tuition at Washington State University Vancouver.

Meanwhile, there's a shortage of slots. In some cases, expectant parents put their names on waiting lists before the baby is even born.

And the median pay for local child care workers in 2020 was a miserable $15.18 per hour, or about $31,500 per year. Fed up with their pay, teachers at a Fisher's Landing facility recently staged a walkout, leaving parents to make emergency plans. Yet day care operators say they can't afford to pay higher wages without further increasing rates.

Faced with lack of access and affordability, many parents turn to unregulated, unlicensed babysitters. Some are likely to be terrific, with an environment as welcoming as grandma's house. Another may have a sex offender or unsecured guns in the home.

In other words, it's a system that is ripe for reform.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is among those calling for changes. Murray spoke with The Columbian's Lauren Ellenbecker recently to champion a proposal for a program as part of President Joe Biden's Build Back Better Act.

Under the plan, families making less than three-quarters of their state's median income — in Washington, that would be about $76,000 for a family of four — would receive free child care. Families earning up to 250 percent of the median ($254,000 in Washington) could also receive some benefits. Finally, universal preschool would be available for 3- and 4-year-olds.

Like other parts of the BBB proposal, the child care provisions would substantially change the social compact between the government and the citizens. Some will object to it on the grounds that it further enlarges government. Others will point to the price — an estimated $752 billion in its first 10 years. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, says it would unfairly limit parents' choices to send their kids to religiously affiliated preschools.

But inaction has its price, too. The Associated Press recently looked at Idaho, where the Legislature recently refused a $6 million early childhood learning grant awarded by the Trump administration. One Republican lawmaker said he opposes anything making it easier for mothers to work outside the home.

That sort of narrow thinking not only limits a family's ability to make personal choices — anathema to conservative dogma — but it also reduces the number of skilled workers in the labor pool. That's yet another crisis, amplified this year by what some are calling the Great Resignation and the exit of the enormous baby boom generation from the labor force.

It's likely that the Build Back Better proposal has a lot of flaws. And its passage seems unlikely since Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has said he will not support it.

Whether or not the proposal survives in current form, the child care problem is urgent and needs to be addressed. Families are hard pressed to find care, and stressed to pay for it. Workers are undervalued and under-compensated. Operators are price constrained. Whether or not it's part of a massive program like Build Back Better, lawmakers need to craft a solution that successfully addresses these concerns.

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