EDITORIAL: Our view: A needed state child care change

Observer - 11/1/2021

Oct. 30—Every Oregon county was considered a child care desert before the pandemic.

Every one.

That's from an Oregon State University analysis. It was true for infants and toddlers. It was true for most counties with preschool students. Just not enough child care slots.

This study did not take into account that more than one child can be served by one child care slot, if children are only using them part-time. We also don't have more recent numbers. And we suppose you could quibble with the definition that a child care desert is a community with more than three children for every regulated child care slot.

But there is no denying it is hard to find affordable, quality child care. It's a source of anguish and financial worry for working parents. It means trouble for employers. And child care is less accessible to minorities.

Oregon State University-Cascades Campus recognized the problem. It launched its own plan to create more child care slots in the region, supported in part by the Deschutes County Commission, federal money allocated through state Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, and thanks to the continuous advocacy by the Bend Chamber of Commerce.

The Oregon Department of Human Services also recently announced an encouraging change — a reduction in child care costs for working families. A federal rule change permits the state to boost the child care subsidy, or copay, for families in Oregon's Employment Related Daycare Program.

The average family copay will be about $16 per month. It will go to zero for families who make 100% or less of the federal poverty level, an annual income of $21,960 for a family of three. And the upper limit of family copays will be $130 a month.

Before the pandemic, the average family copay was about $250. The lowest possible was $27.

This won't help every family. It will help some of Oregon's neediest.

Oregon's next governor should be one who treats child care with the same intensity of focus as many of the state's other challenges. You can barely take a breath before there is an announcement about a new state action on climate change. Those efforts should not stop, but could we have some of that intensity turned toward child care change?

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