Tuesday, May 21, 2024 5 MORIAH BALINGIT, DYLAN LOVAN AND SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press and DANIEL BEEKMA The Seattle A cross the country, the story for families is virtually the same: Child care is unaf- fordable for many, hard to find for those who can pay, and fi- nancially precarious for day care operators and their employees. The Biden administration and Congress tried to alleviate some of these problems when the COVID-19 pandemic crippled the child care industry. But as the record $52.5 billion in relief winds down, many states stepped in with their own solutions. States have expanded free preschool and early education and helped more families pay for child care, making it low-cost or even free for many. Recog- nizing that a federal solution is unlikely to materialize anytime soon, policymakers have come up with novel ways to pay for their plans, creating permanent funding sources that will make new programs sustainable.
New Mexico, for instance, has tapped into its petroleum reve- nue, Washington state put a new tax on investment profits and Kentucky is incentivizing parents to become child care workers. And while the largest invest- ments in child care have come from Democrats, Republican state lawmakers across the country are embracing plans to support child care citing the importance to the economy. New Mexico funding makes careers After she gave birth to son Mateo, Marisshia Sigala put on hold plans to start her real estate career. She and her husband, a personal trainer, lived on one paycheck for about two years and realized the cost of child care would be out of reach even if both were working. Then, in 2022, New Mexico made child care free for nearly all of the families, amending the constitution to fund early childhood initiatives with money from leasing state land to oil and gas companies.
The change will bring in an estimated $150 million a year for the early education of children like Mateo. Sigala and her hus- band qualify because they earn less than of the federal poverty rate, currently about $120,000 a year for a family of four. Mateo is one of more than 21,000 children now benefitting from the subsidies. Now Sigala, 32, is back at work while Mateo attends Koala Chil- Academy, which special- izes in bilingual education. entrepreneurs, a lot more challenging, and we have to rely on ourselves.
We have a paycheck coming in every Sigala said. been a blessing for Expanding free child care for families is a difference for families in such a profound said Elizabeth Groginsky, New early childhood education secretary. And, she said, helping the people who care for and educate young kids, too. Groginsky and other state leaders are hoping the massive investment will help blunt the effects of poverty. just a really incredible op- portunity we have she said.
Preschool for families in Washington state is aiming to offer free preschool to all low-in- come families, and child care vouchers to all low- and moder- ate-income families by the end of the decade, along with high-qual- ity care for infants and toddlers with developmental concerns. The state is expanding its pro- grams with help from a new tax on profits made from resi- financial investments a levy intended to fall on wealthier people. When Zaneta Billyzone-Jat- daughter Zakiah was born prematurely in 2021, her mother hired a nanny to watch the baby three days a week. A clinical manager for a hospital network, Billyzone-Jatta, 42, had to work while keeping an eye on her daughter the other two days. She felt like she give her tod- dler enough attention, much less address the developmen- tal concerns like a professional could.
Through a state program for low-income families and kids with challenges like Zakiah, she now sends her daughter to a child care center near her Seattle-area home free of charge. There, three teachers supervise seven children in class and diligently document her progress. Occu- pational and speech therapists see Zakiah at the school and work closely with the teachers. Billyzone-Jatta said Zakiah has made huge strides at the school. She talks about her days in detail and refers to classmates by name.
She has learned to interact with other students, drink from an open cup and share. a working mother and being able to know that bringing your child to an envi- ronment where loved and cared for gives you so much she said. But the program helping in- fants and toddlers like Zakiah is still small, serving fewer than 200 children statewide. And in November, Washington voters will have a chance to weigh in on the tax in a referendum that could lead to its repeal, endangering the progress the state has made, child care advocates say. would be said Jon Gould of Akin, the nonprofit that operates state-sup- ported child care center.
In Kentucky, child care kids attend Rylee Monn, 24, was working at Baptist Health Child Develop- ment Center in Lexington when she had her second child, dou- bling what she paid for her chil- dren to attend the same center. She thought about quitting and getting a night-shift job so she could stay home and care for her children during the day. of my paycheck was going to child Monn said. Then, in 2023, Kentucky started a program to cover or reduce the cost of day care for parents who work in the child care industry. The program was meant to tackle two challenges at once.
Policymakers hoped it would draw more workers into the child care industry, address- ing a shortage. And they wanted to provide more low-cost child care for all families. Now, more than a dozen states are considering or have already adopted policies modeled after the one in Kentucky, according to EdSurge, a publication that focuses on education. The program has helped the child care industry recruit workers who might otherwise be working in service jobs. Delaney Griffin, 30, was work- ing in a pizza restaurant last year and pondering her next move with her young family.
Her child care costs consumed all but $100 of her biweekly check. After learning about the child care benefit, she took a job in De- cember with Baptist Health Child Development Center. She now pays about $5 a week. Her older child is in a preschool program. free child care part was like the biggest reason that I ac- tually got to start in child Griffin said.
CHILD CARE Some states get creative Working parents praise programs that lower cost, provide incentives Zaneta Billyzone-Jatta smiles at her 2-year-old daughter Zakiah Jatta in her classroom at Early Learning Center on March 26 in Auburn, Wash. ELLEN M. BANNER, THE SEATTLE ELLEN M. BANNER, THE SEATTLE Zakiah Jatta, 2, points to a photo of her family hanging on the wall in her classroom at Early Learning Center on March 26 in Auburn, Wash. SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, ASSOCIATED Marisshia Sigala puts her son Mateo in his car seat after picking him up after work March 20 from the Koala Academy in Albuquerque, N.M.
DYLAN LOVAN, ASSOCIATED Rylee Monn plays with her class at a child care center March 13 in Lexington, Ky. Monn, who has two children, is taking advantage of a state program that offers free or reduced cost child care to child care workers..
