More Republicans back spending on child care, saying it’s an economic issue
10 months, 2 weeks ago

More Republicans back spending on child care, saying it’s an economic issue

Associated Press  

Like a lot of mothers, North Dakota state Rep. Emily O’Brien struggled to find infant care when her daughter Lennon was born in 2019. Not long after, O’Brien persuaded her colleagues to back a plan to invest $66 million in child care, an unprecedented sum for a state that had, like others with Republican leadership, long resisted such spending. In Vermont, Democratic state lawmakers overrode a Republican governor’s veto to pass a payroll tax hike to fund child care subsidies. Mike Parson has proposed spending nearly $130 million to help low-income families access child care once the pandemic relief money dries up and to create tax credits to support child care providers. Two years ago, an Idaho state lawmaker apologized after he opposed federal early childhood money because it encouraged women to “ come out of the home and let others raise their children.” The new and expanded funding reflects a growing sentiment that the nation’s broken child care system will not be fixed without public support.

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History of this topic

Here's where voters approved a tax hike to help pay for child care
1 month, 2 weeks ago

Here's where voters approved a tax hike to help pay for child care

NPR  

Here's where voters approved a tax hike to help pay for child care toggle caption SDI Productions Child care was on the ballot in several cities and counties across the country. "The American people have resoundingly called for — both before and during the election cycle — affordable, accessible, quality child care solutions," wrote the organization's CEO Susan Gale Perry. …

Opinion: Child care is now a central issue in the presidential race. That didn’t happen overnight
2 months, 3 weeks ago

Opinion: Child care is now a central issue in the presidential race. That didn’t happen overnight

LA Times  

Earlier this month, former President Trump was asked a revealing question at the Economic Club of New York: What would he do about child care? In 1942, union organizer Kitty Ellickson wrote an influential essay on a term for a reality women are still living, the “double day” — doing the majority of care work while also working for pay …

Column: I know what Trump was really talking about in his child care rant, and it’s even scarier than you thought
3 months, 2 weeks ago

Column: I know what Trump was really talking about in his child care rant, and it’s even scarier than you thought

LA Times  

Donald Trump launches into an incoherent rant about child care costs Thursday in response to a question from Reshma Saujani, top right, at the Economic Club of New York. Here’s how he launched into the topic at the Economic Club of New York, when asked by attendee Reshma Saujani, a Democratic children’s advocate, if he would commit to making child …

Trump tried to explain how he plans to make childcare more affordable. It was a word salad
3 months, 2 weeks ago

Trump tried to explain how he plans to make childcare more affordable. It was a word salad

The Independent  

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Then he was asked the following question.“If you win in November, can you commit …

Donald Trump Rambles Incoherently When Asked About Reducing Child Care Costs
3 months, 2 weeks ago

Donald Trump Rambles Incoherently When Asked About Reducing Child Care Costs

Huff Post  

LOADING ERROR LOADING Donald Trump on Thursday got a question about what he would do as president to make child care more affordable and accessible. “Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including child care, that it’s going to take care,” Trump continued. “We’re going to have — I look forward to having no …

Child care is a ‘textbook example of a broken market.’ Where do Harris, Trump go from here?
4 months ago

Child care is a ‘textbook example of a broken market.’ Where do Harris, Trump go from here?

LA Times  

Children get help from staff during a class at Educare Los Angeles at Long Beach in March. The ‘broken child-care market’ Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen described the child care system in 2021 as “a textbook example of a broken market.” Child-care employees are some of the lowest-paid workers in the economy, at an average of $13.22 an …

Opinion: Why is the ‘pro-family’ GOP blocking legislation that would help lift many kids out of poverty?
4 months, 2 weeks ago

Opinion: Why is the ‘pro-family’ GOP blocking legislation that would help lift many kids out of poverty?

LA Times  

Vice presidential candidate JD Vance is among the Republicans saying that Democrats are anti-family. Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance told Megyn Kelly last month that Democrats are calling for an end to the Child Tax Credit because they are “anti-family and anti-kid.” Vance, who has courted controversy for calling Democrats the party of “childless cat ladies,” then declared, “We …

Day care prices aren’t getting better. So states are stepping in
7 months, 1 week ago

Day care prices aren’t getting better. So states are stepping in

Associated Press  

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Across the country, the story for families is virtually the same: Child care is unaffordable for many, hard to find for those who can pay, and financially precarious for day care operators and their employees. Then, in 2022, New Mexico made child care free for nearly all the state’s families, amending the constitution to fund early childhood …

Can you afford to take care of your children and parents? Biden revives effort to lower costs
7 months, 2 weeks ago

Can you afford to take care of your children and parents? Biden revives effort to lower costs

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — As President Joe Biden runs for reelection, he’s resurrecting proposals to reshape American life from the cradle to the grave by lowering the cost of child care, expanding preschool opportunities and making home aides more available to the elderly. “So when the legislation wasn’t passed, we got to work on an executive order that really was forward-leaning across …

Meet the Republican deadbeat dads
8 months, 3 weeks ago

Meet the Republican deadbeat dads

Raw Story  

Recently, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos used in in-vitro fertilization have the same legal rights as living, breathing, flesh-and-blood children. Republican President George W. Bush signed tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, which gave $570,000 windfalls to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, while the Republican house in 2003 voted for steep cuts to Medicaid, food stamps …

Should the government do more to help children? This bipartisan group thinks so
9 months, 2 weeks ago

Should the government do more to help children? This bipartisan group thinks so

NPR  

Should the government do more to help children? That's why the collaborative recommends "a simple, predictable, and easy-to-access cash benefit for children" — especially for families with young children. Families need more — and better — child care options The research is clear: Making sure a child has a safe, nurturing environment not only pays dividends for the lifetime of …

Covering child care costs for daycare workers could fix Nebraska’s provider shortage, senator says
10 months, 3 weeks ago

Covering child care costs for daycare workers could fix Nebraska’s provider shortage, senator says

Associated Press  

— Nebraska is looking to follow in the footsteps of Kentucky in implementing a program that covers the costs of child care for child care workers. By November 2023, Kentucky had seen an additional 3,200 child care providers join the state’s ranks providing care for 5,700 more children than the year before, according to child advocate group Kentucky Youth Advocates. …

Youngkin calls for increased state spending on child care programs
1 year ago

Youngkin calls for increased state spending on child care programs

Associated Press  

RICHMOND, Va. — Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Thursday that the proposed budget he will soon unveil for the next two fiscal years will include an increase in state spending on early learning and child care programs. According to Youngkin’s remarks and a broad outline released by his office, his budget will call for over $448 million in spending …

The “Solution” to Our Child Care Woes Will Make Everything Worse
1 year ago

The “Solution” to Our Child Care Woes Will Make Everything Worse

Slate  

Swapping an office cubicle for my kitchen table a few days a week was a game-changer for me back when my kids were still small. The country’s biggest for-profit child care chains such as Bright Horizons, Learning Care Group, and KinderCare are not part of this grim picture. “We got nervous,” Chad Dunkley, co-chairman of the consortium’s board and chief …

Child care programs just lost thousands of federal dollars. Families and providers scramble to cope
1 year, 2 months ago

Child care programs just lost thousands of federal dollars. Families and providers scramble to cope

Associated Press  

WILLIAMSON, W.Va. — Kaitlyn Adkins is studying law to help families in her community impacted by the opioid epidemic at the heart of West Virginia coal country. Mother of three Kaitlyn Adkins, an Appalachian School of Law student, speaks about the necessity of child care access for parents working a job or toward agree after dropping off her kids at …

Child care has long been ‘broken.’ Things may get worse this weekend
1 year, 2 months ago

Child care has long been ‘broken.’ Things may get worse this weekend

LA Times  

Sirens are sounding for American families that on Saturday the nation will fall off a “child-care cliff.” That’s when $37 billion in child-care pandemic relief from the federal government will expire. California pain points persist The industry still faces myriad pain points — teacher shortages, the high cost of materials and utilities eating into narrow profit margins, parents who still …

Opinion: Federal funding for child care is about to fall off a cliff. Why that’s a disaster
1 year, 2 months ago

Opinion: Federal funding for child care is about to fall off a cliff. Why that’s a disaster

LA Times  

When child care funds from the American Rescue Plan Act run out, 70,000 programs across the country are expected to close. The American Rescue Plan Act supported child care in two ways: It allowed states to expand financial support to families directly, and it provided funding to early education programs to stay open amid economic instability. For instance, the American …

With thousands of child care programs at risk of closing, Democrats press for more money
1 year, 3 months ago

With thousands of child care programs at risk of closing, Democrats press for more money

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — Democrats in Congress are pushing for a new round of money to keep the nation’s child care industry afloat, saying thousands of programs are at risk of closing when federal pandemic relief runs out this month. Legislation introduced in both chambers on Wednesday would provide $16 billion a year over the next five years, awarded as grants to …

Wisconsin Republicans dismiss governor’s call to increase funding for child care, UW System
1 year, 4 months ago

Wisconsin Republicans dismiss governor’s call to increase funding for child care, UW System

Associated Press  

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday called a special legislative session for September in a longshot attempt quickly dismissed by Republicans to approve funding they rejected earlier this year for child care services, a family leave program, the University of Wisconsin System and other efforts targeting the state’s worker shortage problem. Evers has been highlighting child …

Blue state governors are pushing Congress on child care as federal subsidies dry up
1 year, 6 months ago

Blue state governors are pushing Congress on child care as federal subsidies dry up

Raw Story  

This story was originally published by The 19th. “This is something that I think should unite all of us, but it's somewhat frustrating that we don't see significant help coming after these child care stabilization grants,” Cooper told The 19th. “It gave rise to the letter and my conversations with members of Congress and our state legislature to step up, …

Wisconsin Republicans vote to end funding for child care program
1 year, 6 months ago

Wisconsin Republicans vote to end funding for child care program

Associated Press  

MADISON, Wis. — Republicans who control the Wisconsin Legislature voted early Friday to end funding for a pandemic-era child care subsidy program over the objections of Democrats and child care providers who argued that the move would be devastating for needy families and the state’s economy. The Child Care Counts program handed out nearly $600 million to more than 4,900 …

WH analysis of GOP deficit plan: job losses, poorer kids
1 year, 8 months ago

WH analysis of GOP deficit plan: job losses, poorer kids

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — The White House says the math in House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s plan to trim the federal deficit is “unforgiving” —- estimating a deep 22% cut to non-defense spending that would leave children poorer, veterans sicker, families hungrier and housing more expensive. President Joe Biden and GOP lawmakers are engaged in a tense showdown over federal finances, Republican House …

WH economic report: Money for child care would help growth
1 year, 9 months ago

WH economic report: Money for child care would help growth

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — The White House is making the case for more government support for child care programs in an economic report that it released Monday, drawing on extensive research to say additional spending would improve kids’ lives, increase the quality of early childhood schooling and enable more women to hold jobs. Rouse added that government support for child care would …

Burgum unveils plan for North Dakota’s child care ‘crisis’
2 years, 3 months ago

Burgum unveils plan for North Dakota’s child care ‘crisis’

Associated Press  

BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota would spend up to $80 million in state savings over the next two years to address child care in the state, under a proposal pitched Tuesday by Gov. North Dakota has “tens of thousands” of unfilled jobs, and many families “have to make a choice to work and pay for child care or not work …

This Is The Bittersweet Part Of Democrats' Sweet Legislative Victory
2 years, 4 months ago

This Is The Bittersweet Part Of Democrats' Sweet Legislative Victory

Huff Post  

LOADING ERROR LOADING Democrats in Congress were thrilled when President Joe Biden signed a landmark climate and health care bill into law last week. It’s not a complicated story: a fragile sector shattered.” Sen. Patty Murray joins members of Congress and advocates to push for child care in budget reconciliation outside the U.S. Capitol on June 9, 2022, in Washington, …

The Child Care Crisis Needs A Lot More Attention Than It's Getting
2 years, 6 months ago

The Child Care Crisis Needs A Lot More Attention Than It's Getting

Huff Post  

LOADING ERROR LOADING This article is part of HuffPost’s biweekly politics newsletter. About one in three families with young children encountered “serious problems” finding child care last year, according to a survey that came out in October. “Stories of children locked in cars adjacent to factories, chained to temporary trailer homes, and left in movie theaters quickly filled newspapers and …

Democrats Are Trying To Salvage Their Party's Child Care Initiative
2 years, 7 months ago

Democrats Are Trying To Salvage Their Party's Child Care Initiative

Huff Post  

LOADING ERROR LOADING Sen. Patty Murray spent the past year leading calls to create a comprehensive American child care program as part of the “Build Back Better” legislation that President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders were putting together. “I have spoken to so many moms and parents who had to quit their jobs entirely because they either couldn’t afford child …

Federal COVID-19 Relief Saved Child Care For Millions, Report Says
2 years, 9 months ago

Federal COVID-19 Relief Saved Child Care For Millions, Report Says

Huff Post  

LOADING ERROR LOADING If you are in a working family and have managed to hold on to your child care during the past two years, you may have the federal government to thank, according to a new report. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images The report’s calculations draw on data from two independent groups that focus on early childhood: the National …

Parents and caregivers of young children say they've hit pandemic rock bottom
2 years, 11 months ago

Parents and caregivers of young children say they've hit pandemic rock bottom

NPR  

Parents and caregivers of young children say they've hit pandemic rock bottom Enlarge this image toggle caption Cooper Neill for NPR Cooper Neill for NPR "I had a parent tell me to f*** off last week," Cori Berg said. Working parents can't always afford to keep a sick child home Enlarge this image toggle caption Mohamed Sadek for NPR Mohamed …

Democrats’ bill plans the biggest expansion of public education in a century
3 years, 1 month ago

Democrats’ bill plans the biggest expansion of public education in a century

LA Times  

Democrats are seeking to provide universal preschool and subsidized child care in one of the largest pieces of the Build Back Better social spending bill. “Democrats want to sweep the first five years of children’s lives into a new set of top-down, one-size-fits-all, Washington-knows-best regulations.” Several Republicans have complained the policy would exclude faith-based preschool or day-care programs. “The way …

US-funded child care aid nearing reality with Biden bill
3 years, 1 month ago

US-funded child care aid nearing reality with Biden bill

Associated Press  

WASHINGTON — Women — and some men — in Congress have been fighting for government child care assistance for almost 80 years. All told, the federal government’s new programs for paid parental leave, child care and an expanded child tax credit “would be pretty major, if not landmark, change for social policy and expanding its reach into the depths of …

Biden touts child-care provisions in Democratic spending bill
3 years, 2 months ago

Biden touts child-care provisions in Democratic spending bill

LA Times  

President Biden on Friday implored Congress to pass his party’s major spending bill, saying it would expand access to child care and make the U.S. more competitive in the global economy. “Millions of American parents, especially moms, can’t be part of the workforce because they can’t afford the cost of child care,” Biden said Friday in a library at the …

Here’s what’s in the Senate version of the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion spending plan
3 years, 4 months ago

Here’s what’s in the Senate version of the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion spending plan

CNN  

CNN — Senate Democrats released their sweeping $3.5 trillion budget resolution on Monday, August 9 – the latest step in their drive to expand education, health care and child care support, tackle the climate crisis and make further investments in infrastructure. RELATED: Schumer on $3.5 trillion bill: ‘We’re moving full speed ahead’ The Senate Budget Committee, which released a framework …

Why a budget boost for child care is actually good for the economy
3 years, 7 months ago

Why a budget boost for child care is actually good for the economy

ABC  

Childcare subsidies are seen as one of the big ways governments can support greater gender equality, by helping women return to work when they want to. More women working = more taxes At a very basic level, increasing the number of primary carers that can up their hours at work without being penalised means you have more people paying income …

Republicans Tar New Child Benefit As Welfare Without Work
3 years, 7 months ago

Republicans Tar New Child Benefit As Welfare Without Work

Huff Post  

LOADING ERROR LOADING Democrats have changed their approach to social programs, embracing unconditional cash assistance without the kind of “work requirements” they loved in the Bill Clinton years. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House, and Rep. Kevin Brady, the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, have called it “welfare without work.” “Good jobs and rising …

Editorial: Child care is in crisis, but we can fix it — and help the economy, too
3 years, 8 months ago

Editorial: Child care is in crisis, but we can fix it — and help the economy, too

LA Times  

Our pandemic-stricken society cheered the brave first-responders and medical crews who confronted COVID-19 risks every day, thanked grocery workers and tipped delivery people extra. Nearly a third of the children in need of child care went without it; their parents relied on a patchwork of family and friends for help, sometimes working fewer hours as a result. The crisis in …

Harris praises Connecticut for spending federal aid on kids
3 years, 8 months ago

Harris praises Connecticut for spending federal aid on kids

Associated Press  

Vice President Kamala Harris praised Connecticut officials Friday for how the state plans to spend some of the billions of dollars from the newly passed coronavirus relief package on education and child care initiatives, noting the pandemic has given policymakers an opportunity to address longstanding challenges. The Democrat, who made her first visit to the state since the November election, …

Child care is set to be a key issue at the next federal election. So what might it look like?
3 years, 9 months ago

Child care is set to be a key issue at the next federal election. So what might it look like?

ABC  

Child care is shaping up to be a key issue at the next federal election, with parents wanting to know if it will become more accessible and affordable. Key points: Child care is set to be a key issue at the next federal election, with economic and social reasons for change The Coalition is yet to commit to any major …

Comparing the Biden and GOP stimulus proposals
3 years, 10 months ago

Comparing the Biden and GOP stimulus proposals

CNN  

CNN — President Joe Biden and a group of 10 Republican senators have very different ideas for the next coronavirus relief bill. Biden’s plan would cost $465 billion, according to the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, while the Republicans say their measure would cost an estimated $220 billion. GOP: The senators would also extend enhanced food stamp benefits …

Trump v Biden: Who will win over stressed-out parents?
4 years, 2 months ago

Trump v Biden: Who will win over stressed-out parents?

Al Jazeera  

Faced with working full-time and managing my five-year-old’s online learning, I shelled out $20,000 for a private, outdoor kindergarten. LeanIn co-founders Sheryl Sandberg and Rachel Thomas put it bluntly in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed: “If we had a panic button, we’d be hitting it.” While the COVID-19 crisis destroyed the fragile web so many working families have knit …

US COVID: child care closures disproportionally affect women
4 years, 4 months ago

US COVID: child care closures disproportionally affect women

Al Jazeera  

A survey found that 13 percent of working parents had to resign or reduce work hours because of a lack of child care. “Now it’s like I’m in purgatory.” The pandemic upended child care plans for many parents in the US, forcing them – particularly mothers – to grapple with tough choices that are only becoming more difficult as states …

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