WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 14: Childcare Now is spelled out on signs during Child Care Providers and Parents Rally to Pass Build Back Better at the U.S. Capitol on December 14, 2021 in Washington, DC. 50 years after President Nixon vetoed child care legislation, parents and providers rally to ensure child care is passed through Build Back Better. (Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Child Care For Every Family Network)
WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 14: Childcare Now is spelled out on signs during Child Care Providers and Parents Rally to Pass Build Back Better at the U.S. Capitol on December 14, 2021 in Washington, DC. 50 years after President Nixon vetoed child care legislation, parents and providers rally to ensure child care is passed through Build Back Better. (Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Child Care For Every Family Network)
Airdate: July 18th, 2023
One of the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic is just how important child care is. It was a major challenge in 2020 and 2021 when child care facilities shut down and many parents couldn’t return to work because of it.
Every parent wants to make sure their children are cared for in a setting that is safe and in a learning environment. In another words, they want quality child care. The federal advocacy group First Five Years Fund sponsored a poll of Pennsylvanians that focused on child care and their Director of Communications, Christy Felling appeared on The Spark Tuesday and was asked to define quality child care,”Very top line, it means safety. It means there are enough people there per child to make sure that that child gets the attention that they need. It means that there is a clean and child friendly space for the kids to be in. And it also means enrichment activities. It means there are people who are teaching your kids and working with your kids on sharing and their emotions and reading and colors and all of the things that you associate with childhood that are happening, even if as a parent, you’re not the one in the room doing that with them at a certain hour of the day.”
But quality child care can be expensive, so we often hear the word affordable right after quality. and Felling said that’s where the federal government comes in and needs to step up,”It becomes really important that we have this funding so that child care is accessible and affordable. And by accessible, I mean that there are a lot of places where you just can’t find childcare. There aren’t enough slots at the local child care center or the local pre-K or it’s really far away or it doesn’t match your hours. Maybe you’re not working in 9 to 5. Maybe you’re a server in a restaurant or you’re working the night shift at times. Like there’s all of these places that make it or things that make it really hard to find. And then when you do find it, it’s really expensive, as I’m sure most people have learned if they have had little ones in the last few years. In many states, the expense of child care is for an infant is more than the average for a mortgage. It’s more than the average for college. And that’s why we need to figure this out and make sure that it gets funding. The system is such that if parents had to pay what it actually cost to hire people to watch their kids in a safe enriched environment, it’s really expensive. Most couldn’t afford it, especially people who are on the lower end of the income scale. At the same time, a lot of private providers are barely squeaking by with what they make at child care centers. A lot of people during the pandemic left working in child care to go work at a Target or at a local restaurant because they could make so much more and so were desperate to hold on to these amazing, wonderful people who care for kids.”
The poll found 49% of Pennsylvania voters believe federal funding for child care and early childhood learning programs should be increased and 83% support providing tax incentives to businesses that provide or help employees find and afford quality early childhood education programs.
