By Kathryn Dicks | guest column
After six years of paying ungodly amounts of money for full-time child care, I decided major change was needed to make the future better. My family paid over 33% of our annual income, more than our mortgage, for child care for two children.
I want my daughter and son to experience a world that includes choices. All families deserve high-quality care at affordable rates. The type of care children receive should not be based solely on the parents’ income. The child care crisis has been ongoing for several years and demonstrates market failure. The costs are too high for families, and providers struggle to keep their businesses open and pay fair wages.
Employers need employees to be working. Child care should be treated as public infrastructure.
Society needs the next generation to be healthy.
Wages are too low for early childhood educators, and they deserve better. In some areas, hourly pay is $13. When current funding runs out, the pay could decrease and many centers would have to close.
We must do better. The investment is past due on children and societal infrastructure, allowing parents to work and have options.
It has been suggested that families should only spend 7% of their income to make child care more affordable. Families face high expenses for full-time child care in some areas as much as their mortgage. The entire system of care in the U.S. is an unsustainable business model. Wages have continued to stagnate for early childhood educators. They deserve exceptional pay for their care work, education and contribution to society.
It has been estimated that for every dollar invested in child care, the rate of return is 425% for companies that assist employees paying for full-time child care.
We have to ask ourselves as a nation, as a state, as a society: When will we vote for funding the children?
Child care needs investment to help create amazing lives and futures. Investing in child care when children are young is the right thing to do. Society becomes healthier and communities build up stronger. Studies have shown the explosion of growth, including brain development, that happens in the first few years of a child’s life.
Early childhood development, education, teaching, support and, of course, care is extremely important to shape the child’s life and their mind.
We also need to ask: Why is the quality of care for kids based on parents’ income?
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers proposed $480 million for child care in the state budget this year. The Republicans removed it during revisions in May. A measure to provide $110 million in direct payment to providers expires on June 6 of next year.
We need more funding to continue in order for child care businesses to remain open, to make sure parents have choices for care, to ensure that teachers are paid a fair wage, to ensure business owners are supported in their community and children are safe. It’s an investment that should not be withheld. All children deserve the best care to begin their lives.
We need universal child care passed at a national level. But until then, Wisconsin needs additional state funding for child care.
Investing in child care for working families is the best way to help create a society in which everyone gets a healthy start. Care businesses and daycare centers are given a fighting chance to thrive with additional funds in every state. Child care programs and providers will close their doors if these investments are not made.
We do not have time to waste. We do not have the luxury to test what happens without proper long-term investment to promote stability in the child care sector.
I would urge us to consider a world where we implement universal child care for all in the United States. Everyone deserves a chance to thrive, especially the children. Parents also need to work to care for their families, contribute to the success of their community, their place of work, and their futures. The change is us.
It’s important to take action in these moments. And I like to remind people that no action is too small. Activism is not for the weak, but it brings so much hope for the future.
Kathryn Dicks co-leads the Wisconsin chapter of Mother Forward, originally called Campaign for Childcare, a group that aims to create a better world for children.
Mother Forward 