Time to take on some big items.

Child care.

The issue is that society has taken care of this the wrong way for a very long time.   Men decided that women should stay home to look after the kids.  Because it is really not possible to work and take care of an infant- or even a young child- if one is working.

When my first kid was born, we sought out child care.  Because we both worked.  And, to be honest, we were lucky.  My spouse’s salary more than covered the child care costs, but not by much.

(When I found out we were being blessed with a young child when I was older- MUCH older- we spent 6 months finding the best child care provider we could find.  We lucked out, Leticia was perfect- and my son (now 30 y old) and she have a wonderful relationship still.)

During World War II, when 1.5 million women had to work to provide the “manpower” needed to keep the war machine going, the government passed the Lanham Act. This provided more than 3000 centers that were funded by the feds but run by the states- costing less than $ 13 a day per child.  (Yes, that is in TODAY’s dollars!)  And, as soon as the war ended, the program was terminated.

It’s why folks like Ike (President Eisenhower) and Tricky Dick (the Watergate burglar President) abhorred the fact that the government would help parents with child care or that women would not stay home to tend to the kids.  (You do know that the Hull House, founded by Jane Addams in 1889, afforded toddlers good child care, instead of their being tied to tables while moms worked.)

It’s a real issue still. About 70% of kids under 6 reside in a home where the adults work.  And, it’s expensive as heck to care for these kids- 36% of single parent’s income or 13% of two parent family’s income goes to child care.

And, child care is a loose term.  It’s the “bucket” we use to describe the day care, nursery schools, preschools, and any other place where parents drop off their kids while they go off to work.

And, no matter they are, the states and localities impose strict requirements- square footage, zoning restrictions, earthquake preparedness plans, fire safety codes, CPR certifications, nutritional guidelines, rules about parking and outdoor space, and liability insurance that all impose hurdles for these centers.  (Not to mention the child to staff ratio of one caregiver for every 3 or 4 infants!)  No surprise that 60% of the gross revenue of these centers is relegated to wages and benefits.

And, then came the pandemic.  Which closed 1/3 of all child care centers and half of those left are losing money.

Which brings up the Build Back Better Act (BBBA).   Which will provide $ 390 billion to try to solve this conundrum.  Free preschool, subsidized child care…  Costs will be limited to 7% of family income- but the center still has to pay a living wage.

But, let’s think on this.

First- what is a living wage?  Most child care workers are earning $ 24K a year.  That’s more than minimum wage (unless that’s $ 15 an hour).

And, another problem.  When parents are divorced and one parent earns $ 35K a year (and has custody of the kids) while the other earns $ 100K a year- how does one determine what that 7% limit really is?

Or the fact that the BBBA is federally funded but administration is relegated to the states.  (And, you know some states will refuse to participate claiming this is a communist plot- because facts no longer apply to a good portion of the political system.)

Plus the hours of operation.  Do we keep kids in the programs like they were going to school?  And, then what happens after 3 PM or so, while the parents need to keep working until 5, which really means the kids don’t get picked up until 5:30.  (This is why some places [Multnomah County, Oregon, for example] now provide before and after care on a sliding tuition scale.  And, day care centers can sign up for this program, so they can survive.)

Since preschool (think Head Start) is politically palatable, those programs are often initiated.  But, consider what New York City did when it began its universal PreK program.  That stripped away the older kids from the day care centers- you know the ones that need fewer staff members.  So, many day care centers lost money- and closed.  (Almost all of them were in the poorer neighborhoods of the city.)

The devil is going to be in the details.  The ones that are left to the states, who will impose all sorts of political impediments.

 

 

Oh, yeah.  Happy Birthday, Neil.  Today is my younger brother’s birthday.