The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
A national coalition of child care and early learning advocates, including one with services in Ohio, sent a letter to President-elect Donald Trump urging his help in improving the child care system across the country.
The letterasks the new administration to “continue to support the fundamental needs of America’s children, families, employers and child care providers by prioritizing child care and early learning.”
“Parents should be able to make care choices that best support their family’s individual needs and their child’s development,” the letter states.
National advocacy group ChildCare Aware of America found the Midwest to be one of three regions in the country where the average price of child care for two children surpassed average housing costs. In the Midwest, child care was clocked at $21,915 for two children, above prices for not only housing, but college tuition, transportation, food and health care.
The groups pointed to the need not only of households with working adults, but also of early childhood educators who are “among the lowest-paid professionals in the nation, which continues to drive many away from the sector, exacerbating supply challenges and impacting the quality of care available to families,” the groups wrote.
One of the entities that signed on to the letter was Learning Grove, which has early care and learning facilities in southwestern Ohio and northern Kentucky, and has expanded its services not only to touch on early childhood, but also high school students and college and career coaching.
“We see ourselves as really trying to fill those gaps in the education continuum that really support the student achievement,” said Mike Hammons, vice president of advocacy for Learning Grove.
Child care is a “major barrier” for families, Hammons said, and it impacts the children who need the care and education, along with the parents who depend on care while they work. Hammons said Learning Grove signed on to the letter to make sure the newest administration keeps child care at the forefront of the priority list.
“It’s important early on that needs for child care are top-of-mind for them, and I think it will be,” Hammons said. “In the last (Trump) administration, I think they understood the challenges that child care providers were having and I think they understand the importance of breaking down barriers for people to be able to work.”
The coalition wants to see investments in federal programs like the Child Care and Development Block Grant program (CCDBG) and Head Start, tax provision enhancements for families with child care expenses and incentivizing work in the child care sector to bring about quality care.
Trump made comments during the campaign that “child care is child care,” and told the Economic Club of New York that “you have to have it,” but has not made clear specific policies he plans to support.
The coalition letter pointed to a 2019 report from the Trump administration on “principles for child care reform,” which they say was a strategy for “improving access to affordable, high-quality care which remain increasingly relevant today.”
That strategy document noted a doubling of the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000 per child, and credited the Trump administration for “establishing bipartisan consideration of national paid family leave,” though that hasn’t come to fruition yet. Also noted in the document, the 2018 federal spending bill did double the CCDBG, giving the fund it’s biggest annual increase in history, putting discretionary funding at $5.8 billion, up from $2.9 billion in fiscal year 2017, according to the First Five Years Fund.
“We hope to work with your administration on carrying these shared priorities forward and addressing the challenges of today,” the groups wrote in the letter.
