The proposed budget includes much needed funding for early childhood education and care. For too many families and providers, the funding can’t come soon enough.
How Schools Fare in Biden’s Proposed Budget
Last week while scrolling LinkedIn I came across a post from a fellow female entrepreneur who was sharing the story of a colleague’s resignation. She wasn’t leaving because of low pay, a long commute, or a hostile work environment; she was leaving because child care had become unsustainable for her and her family. As a working single mom who has had to do the math on child care, housing, and basic expenses even while I was managing programs; these situations hit close to home.
In 2021 the CAP found that “families cannot afford child care….Parents—particularly women—are constrained by the lack of options available for their young children while they work. The dearth of affordable, quality options forces many parents to reduce the number of hours they work or leave the paid workforce altogether.”
Center for American Progress, 2021
A 2019 study by the Center for American Progress found that half of the United States lives in a childcare desert, with barriers to affordability and access limiting families’ ability to find and maintain safe and sustainable care for their children. Families in California seeking care for an infant can expect to pay upward of $20,000 per year, The study found several states where “nearly two-thirds” of the population live in areas where the need for child care overwhelms the supply.
Staffing Crisis
The early childhood education field struggled to maintain adequate staffing before the Covid-19 Pandemic, with a patchwork of state regulations outlining professional and program quality standards. Many programs operate on razor-thin margins, trying to balance affordability for low-income and working families with the ability to maintain facilities and supplies, and pay living wages to staff, who are often working mothers. The 2019 report, The US and the High Price of Child Care found that 94% of the child care workforce were women, with 52% of them being mothers and 40% POC. This study noted that the child care field employs around 1.5 million people in the U.S., with these workers among the lowest-paid of all professions, averaging $11.17 per hour. While child care remains a common entry-level profession for young mothers, only 15% of early childhood professionals received health insurance from their employers, and 14.7% live below the poverty line (compared to 6.7% in other industries).
With low-income mothers making up a large proportion of the early learning workforce, and many communities already straining to meet the demand for capacity; many programs struggle to balance the need for trained and certified staff (a licensing requirement in many states), and the ability to pay them living wages comparable to their education and experience. This results in staff burnout, high turnover, and a reduction in overall program quality. Read more on this topic here.
Increased Demand, Reduced Supply
Issues of sustainability have long plagued the early learning and care field and were only made worse by the mass employee exodus experienced by all industries during the pandemic. Many established programs were unable to sustain their already stressed businesses through quarantine and health emergencies and were forced to permanently close their doors. This only increased the need for center-based and licensed family-home care across the country in recent years. Our local area saw two high-quality Tribal early learning programs close. As an experienced leader in the field, I have long advocated for increased Federal funding and quality standards.
As our child care system nears crisis level, President Biden announced his 2024 budget proposal this month, which includes increased funding for many early childhood, health and education programs, including the goal of Universal Preschool for all 4-year-olds.
Supporters of this proposed budget include business and labor leaders, education advocates, and child development researchers. It has long been known that children experience major developmental growth and milestones between birth and age 5; and investing in programs that support their education, health and social-emotional development, results in significant long-term benefits to the labor market and society. Since workers who can’t find child care don’t come to work, employers of all sizes feel the impact when child care access isn’t accessible. The 2024 budget proposal would not only decrease costs but support businesses that work with their employees to address their child care needs.
The highlights of this budget proposal include:
White House Proposal
- Cuts Child Care Costs. When families can access affordable, high-quality child care and free, high-quality preschool, it helps children learn, gives families breathing room, and grows the economy. The President’s Budget includes a new proposal to enable States to increase child care options for more than 16 million young children and lowers costs so that parents can afford to send their children to high-quality child care. The Budget also provides $9 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, an increase of nearly $1 billion, to expand access to quality, affordable child care for families across the Nation. In addition, the Budget expands a tax credit to encourage businesses to provide child care benefits to their employees.
- Expands Access to Free, High-Quality Preschool. Too many families across America cannot access high-quality, affordable child care—preventing parents from working and holding back our entire economy. The Budget also funds a Federal-State partnership that provides high-quality, universal, free preschool to support healthy child development and ensure children enter kindergarten ready to succeed. Through this partnership, the Budget would dramatically expand access to high-quality preschool, making it available to all of the approximately four million four-year-old children in the United States. In addition, the Budget helps young children enter kindergarten ready to learn by providing $13.1 billion for Head Start, an increase of $1.1 billion over the 2023 enacted level, including funding to boost wages for Head Start personnel to help address staff shortages and prevent classroom closures. Finally, the Budget includes $500 million for demonstration grants to create or expand free, high-quality preschools in school or community-based settings for children in high-poverty areas.
Source WhiteHouse.gov
Looking Ahead
The Biden budget is unlikely to pass the GOP-controlled House without being attacked, as education in general seems to be on their list of items to eliminate. It will take ongoing and dedicated advocacy from all of us if we want any of these important budget elements to survive.
There is no one solution to this complex issue, however, this working parent and child care director commends the Biden Administration for their continued focus on early childhood education, development, and family services. The Center for American Progress specifically notes underinvestment in early learning and family services as a root cause of our failing early childhood education systems, and proposes “bold and comprehensive reforms” as proposed in the Build Back Better Act and continued on through the current budget proposal. Time will tell what version of this budget emerges from the current GOP-led House, but having leadership in the White House who clearly knows and values the early childhood education field is a sign of progress and opportunity.
