A $24 billion stimulus dries up on September 30
Estimated reading time: 3m 41s
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For the Reckon Report in September, we’re focusing on education. Public education has long been a flashpoint for debate in America. But in the last few years, school board meetings, school libraries and curricula at all levels of education have faced attacks, especially at the state and local levels. Most recently, that challenged curricula have included climate change denial and numerous other controversial issues related to race, gender and evolution. The childcare industry has been in crisis for a long time. But the gaping holes in America’s early childhood education network have been largely ignored by politicians, leaving parents to sort through a patchwork of expensive options that may not fulfill their needs. That nationwide inadequacy is set to worsen in just a few days, as $24 billion in federal stimulus money pumped into the industry over the last few years dries up. One daycare center CEO in Chicago told local NPR affiliate, WBEZ, “They’re setting us up for failure,” in reference to the looming disappearance of federal funding. To be clear, childcare was out of reach for millions of parents even before the pandemic. One 2018 article for Boston’s NPR affiliate, WBUR, laid bare the difficulties parents (overwhelmingly mothers) face when trying to find childcare. Another essay from The Washington Post in 2016 detailed the woes of a mom who had to juggle childcare, working and being a full-time student. But the cost-of-living crisis of the last few years combined with worker shortages in most low-paying industries has made things more dire. According to a 2022 survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, childcare workers on average make $14.22/hour or roughly $29,500/year before taxes. And nearly 1 in 4 parents reported getting fired for work interruptions due to childcare breakdowns, according to a study from Council for a Strong America. |
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(Image credit: Jake May/MLive.com) |
Believe it or not, the United States almost had universal childcare about 50 years ago. There was very strong bipartisan support for the Comprehensive Childhood Development Act, which would have implemented a national daycare system designed to make it easier for single parents to work and care for children at the same time. The bill cleared both the House and the Senate with healthy majorities but was vetoed by Richard Nixon who claimed it had “family-weakening implications” and likened it to the communist childcare arrangements of the Soviet Union. There hasn’t been a major push for universal childcare on a national level since then, although numerous states have expanded universal Pre-K in recent years. |
(Photo credit: Joel Bissel/MLive.com) |
The childcare cliff is upon us, but realistically, parents and caregivers have had their toes dangling at the edge of the cliff for decades. Some only find relief when their children go to school, although after-school provisions aren’t guaranteed either. (Remember the moral panic about latchkey kids in the 80s and 90s?) With the loss of federal funding bringing the loss of childcare into the national spotlight, maybe employers – if not the federal government – will start to act and push the US to be a more child- and family-friendly place. |
Next month, the Reckon Report will be doing a series we’re calling Cradle to Grave, as suggested by our climate reporter, Chris Harress. (Sidenote: If you haven’t subscribed to his newsletter yet, you should!) We’ll be looking at caregiving across the human lifespan, including maternity care, eldercare and disability care. If you have thoughts on caregiving as an industry, a social construct or a policy area, reply to this email and let us know your thoughts. |
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Got something you want us to dive into soon? Let me know at avelasquez@reckonmedia.com.
That's all I've got for this week!
Thanks for reckoning with me, Aria |
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