Last week the New York Times reported that the Trump administration is considering a new proposal that would expand who can receive already limited federal child care subsidies. Currently, these funds help low-income working families afford child care. Under the proposal, married couples with a stay-at-home parent would be eligible for the same funding.
The following is a statement from Susan Gale Perry, Child Care Aware of America, CEO.
“What happens when you take a child care system already in crisis and pull some of its already limited resources away from it? Families lose access to care. Providers lose the resources they need to stay open. Employers lose workers. And communities lose critical infrastructure they depend on.
With federal and state child care assistance reaching just 20 percent of children who are eligible, the conversation we should be having about child care funding is how to expand it to help more working families.
Families should have real choices about what works best for them and their children, including the choice for a parent to stay home. But real choice requires adequately funding child care and paid parental leave, not asking families to compete for resources that are already insufficient to meet the need.
This proposal comes as the Administration is also considering significant changes to Head Start that would weaken critical supports for children and families. Taken together, these changes would make it harder for families to find and afford the quality care and early learning their children need.
We should be strengthening the programs families rely on, not asking them to do more with less.”
