High-quality, affordable, and accessible childcare is a public good that benefits us all, whether or not we have young children. Because our brains grow faster in early childhood than at any later point in life, the most fiscally responsible public investment we can make is to invest in our citizens early, when the returns are the highest. Investing in high-quality, affordable childcare and early childhood education in coordination with parental support and health programs helps: (1) close the achievement gap, (2) assist local employers in attracting and retaining their workforce, (3) strengthen school districts, (4) break the cycle of poverty, and (5) maximize our collective return on investment.
Yet, too many families in our community cannot find nor afford child care. According to the family budget calculator by the Economic Policy Institute, childcare costs are the highest single category of monthly family budget costs for a 2-adult, 2-child family living in Summit County—costing more than housing, transportation, food, or healthcare. In fact, it costs more to send an infant to child care ($14,064) than tuition and fees for residents this year at the University of Utah ($9,002), and, unlike college tuition, there are very few grants, loans, or scholarships available to cover these costs. Even for those parents who can afford it, we simply do not have sufficient spots in licensed providers to meet the demand. According to the Utah Department of Workforce Services analysis, two-thirds of the children under age 6 in Summit County need childcare (1786 kids), but we only have licensed childcare options for around half of them (924 kids).
Despite the importance of these early years, there is an inverse relationship between brain development and early education and caregiver compensation: the higher the period of brain development, the less we pay those teachers and caregivers. Qualified teachers continue to leave the field because of the low wages and benefits provided in this vital profession. In 2019, the median hourly wage for child care workers in Utah was $10.47. Almost a quarter (23.1%) of early educators in Utah live in poverty despite working full time, more than twice the poverty level for Utah workers in general (9.2%). The private market is failing in early childcare because parents are unable to afford high childcare costs, providers operate on razor-thin margins maintaining slim profits, and childcare workers earn low wages and have high turnover.
Utah’s child care industry has been supported these past few years by over half a billion dollars ($573,873,964) in federal pandemic relief funds. Most of these funds have to be expended by September 30, 2023, and the remaining $163 million must be expended by September 30, 2024.
Absent additional public support, the Bipartisan Policy Center has predicted that this child care funding cliff will have “disastrous consequences for child care providers still struggling with the lingering impacts of the pandemic.” Most early childhood programs are small businesses, often women-owned, that make all other work possible. Allowing this sector to fail will have ripple effects across the economy as a whole, prevent parents from working to their full potential, and negatively impact the children who will be relegated to low-quality child care options.
The only way to create a child care system that meets the needs of children, families, communities, and early educators is to recognize that it is a public good that must be funded just as taxpayers fund public education. Voters recognize this as 77% believe that childcare and early learning programs are a good investment of taxpayers’ money. High-quality early education and care can take place at home, in public schools, in childcare centers, and in family childcare environments. Publicly supporting this industry will provide parents with abundant and affordable high-quality choices from which to select whatever best meets their family’s needs.
If Utah’s federal delegation is unwilling to support the Murray Kaine early child care proposal that is estimated to provide over $125 million more each year for Utah as part of a potential reconciliation package, they can still support, or better yet, lead, a bipartisan effort to invest in early care and education as a separate bill. Similarly, our local elected leaders can join the almost 50 other localities who invest in early childhood by supporting local dedicated funds for early childhood. Please encourage your elected leaders to invest in early childhood.