How the Murray-Kaine Child Care & Early Education Proposal Helps Families
While the economic package that Congress and the White House may craft in coming weeks is expected to be considerably smaller than legislation the House passed late last year, expanding child care so that more families can afford and obtain quality care should be a high priority in the package. A new proposal released by Senators Patty Murray and Tim Kaine[1] would increase the number of families in every state who can afford child care, improve the quality of child care in every state, and establish a pilot program so that some states can test how to create a more robust system that provides a larger group of low- and middle-income children who need it with access to affordable child care. The core of the proposal — increased funding that goes to every state — would increase the number of children receiving child care assistance by more than 1 million children, according to estimates by the Center for Law and Social Policy, while also expanding the supply of child care.[2]
Child care is expensive. The average cost of center-based care for a toddler exceeded $10,000 in a majority of states in 2020.[3] The burden of affording child care falls especially hard on families with young children, since the parents tend to be younger and thus to earn less than they will later in their careers. Despite the high cost of child care, the people who provide child care often are paid low wages, making it hard for them to make ends meet and contributing to high turnover in the industry.
“The core of the proposal — increased funding that goes to every state — would increase the number of children receiving child care assistance by more than 1 million children.”
The proposal would increase funding both for child care subsidies for families and for efforts to increase the supply and quality of child care and improve child care workers’ wages. It would have important, tangible benefits:
Helping more parents work. Parents who have access to affordable, quality child care are better able to rejoin or remain in the labor force and work, yet federal funding to help families afford child care is severely inadequate. Pre-pandemic, only about 1 in 7 children whose families were eligible for child care assistance received it.[4] Expanding both the number of families with child care subsidies and the supply of child care so families can find care would make it possible for more parents to work.
Improving the economy by expanding the labor force. Enabling more parents to work can help employers find workers they need by raising the labor force participation rate, which has risen since the worst of the pandemic but remains below historical highs for prime-age adults (ages 25-54). Moreover, raising the labor force participation rate can help ease inflation pressures modestly by increasing the economy’s capacity to supply goods and services and accommodate a higher level of consumer demand without adding to inflation.
