Graphic courtesy of Anjali Rao-Herel ‘22
By Kate Murray ’22
Staff Writer
For months, Congress has been debating an ambitious social policy bill that will assist American families in nearly every stage of life. The plan, proposed by congressional Democrats last month, involves a significant expansion of the social safety net to the tune of 3.5 trillion dollars over the next decade, from paid medical leave to universal pre-K. One area of the plan that has received significant attention is child care. According to The New York Times, average American families are paying significantly more for child care than their mortgages every year, which has devastating effects on their ability to afford other necessities and invest in their futures. On the whole, child care workers are being drastically underpaid at an average wage of about $12 an hour, or $24,000 a year. To make child care more affordable to American families and ensure that service providers have adequate resources, it is imperative that the government intervene and declare child welfare a public responsibility. A substantial, federally-funded economic package is the only solution that will guarantee better conditions for parents, children and laborers in the child care industry.
If passed in its current iteration, the bill will provide most families with a monthly check for $300 per child until 2022 and introduce a cap on the amount families pay for child care to no more than 7 percent of their annual income. According to Jason Deparle of The New York Times, this would cut child care costs for the average family in half. Parents that were shelling out tens of thousands of dollars every year for child care will now be able to have more freedom in their occupational choices, increase their retirement savings and have more children as a result of this lifted financial burden.
While I adamantly believe that the government should support American families by substantially funding child care, the 7 percent cap is a more helpful solution than the monthly check. Even though the proposed stipend was configured by analyzing statistics on child poverty rates rather than chosen arbitrarily — led by the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University — it effectively establishes a fiscal “worth” of children by assigning them a monetary value. Depending on their individual circumstances, some families may need more or less money per month to care for their children than others. In contrast, the 7 percent cap allows for families of diverse financial means to invest in child care that is proportional to their income.
In addition to imposing a limit on what individual families can spend on child care, I believe that the government should require private employers to have generous accommodations for employees with children. Extended and paid parental leave and flexible accommodations for employees with children should be guaranteed in all places of employment. Parents’ salaries or job standings should not be negatively impacted if they are required to bring their children to work or adjust their work schedule to accommodate their children’s needs. Additionally, private employers should subsidize child care in the form of free or discounted daycare and after-school centers. Just like health insurance and other benefits, this additional employment perk would incentivize working parents to join the workforce without having to sacrifice their child’s welfare.
The bill would also guarantee that child care workers will be paid a living wage that is equivalent to the salary of public school teachers with the same credentials. According to The New York Times, most child care facilities spend 50-60 percent of their budgets on labor, so the salary increase for their employees would allow them to hire more staff and offer higher quality resources for the children under their care. The adults who care for young children outside of their home environments play a pivotal role in their development, so it is crucial that their pay reflects the importance of their occupation. Providing child care employees with decent salaries as well as benefits like health insurance will attract more people to the industry that are passionate about the work.
While some Americans may be concerned about the bill allowing the government to have too much control over their private lives, I see child care legislation as bringing more choices to families, not less. With more money and guaranteed child care in workplaces, parents will have more flexibility in the expenditure and investment of their money as well as more options for where they want to live and work. With child care currently being an individual rather than social responsibility, people may end up stuck in jobs, neighborhoods and financial arrangements that are negatively affecting their lives, just to afford the exorbitant cost of child care. Government intervention would require Americans to pay higher taxes, but this would ultimately be more affordable than paying for privatized child care without federal support. Additionally, paying taxes to the government to fund child care does not just benefit individual families. Doing so allows all American families and children, regardless of social circumstances, to have access to adequate care and resources.
Earlier this year, a child care crisis occurred in our own backyard. Mount Holyoke released a statement in February announcing that they would be closing Gorse Children’s Center within the year due to the partnership no longer being financially viable. The decision sparked outcry amongst members of the college community, especially faculty and staff members who rely on Gorse to care for their children at a discounted rate. While the decision to close the children’s center was eventually delayed for another year, the protests prompted by this incident point to the importance of adequately funding child care in the United States.
In order for American families to better support their children, there must be a huge paradigm shift in the way child care is perceived and funded in this country. While some parts of the bill proposed by congressional Democrats seem more practical and beneficial than others, there is no doubt that the federal government must intervene to ensure the welfare of all children and parents.