The Crisis of Affordable Child Care: Lawmakers Push for Federal Intervention

The second most senior member of Congress joined Rep. Chris Deluzio (PA-17) on Saturday in a place where everything seemed tiny. The two lawmakers were surrounded by undersized tables and chairs. Miniature bathroom stalls lined a back wall. A small wooden airplane sat on a bookshelf.

There was, however, nothing miniature about the issue that brought Deluzio and U.S. House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (MA-05) to La Petite Academy, a new child care facility at Pittsburgh International Airport. Their concern: A lack of affordable, high-quality childcare for working parents.

Child care is a sector in crisis. Facilities struggle to retain talented workers because the pay is so low. Raising the pay often means increasing tuition — and that’s a problem, since the cost of child care is already a barrier for many working parents. This “death spiral” for child care facilities is avoidable if the federal government steps in, Deluzio said.

A Role for the Federal Government

Clark agreed. “We have to make sure the federal government is helping to ease the conundrum we have where the only way to raise pay is to raise tuition,” Clark said.

She noted that the most childcare workers are women – predominantly women of color. As a result of the low pay, these women struggle to care for their own families.

Public Support and the Need for Action

Voters are paying attention to the issue. A poll released in July showed that 74 percent of voters think federal funding for childcare and early learning programs should be increased. That includes 61 percent of Republican voters and 86 percent of Democratic voters.

“Since the pandemic, there really has been a paradigm shift” in how childcare is viewed, Clark said. “It is not just considered a private matter for families. We understand it is the underpinning of our economy. It truly is economic infrastructure.”

The Urgent Need for Action

The federal government stepped up during the pandemic to keep child care centers afloat, but that funding expired in September. President Joe Biden and the Democrats want to extend that funding another year at a cost of $16 billion.

“It’s a huge investment,” Clark said. “But we know that childcare and its impact on the economy is so well studied, and the most conservative studies show that for every dollar we put in we get $7 dollars back. The U.S. is well behind developed nations. We put in, on average, about $500 dollars towards toddler care. Other nations are at $15,000.”

Challenges in Passing Legislation

Without Republican support, however, the Democrats have little hope of actually passing legislation, something Clark acknowledged.

“When given the chance, they cut childcare,” she said of the GOP. The Republicans’ budget proposal would eliminate more than 240,000 early educators, she said. “It’s moving in the wrong direction. What Chris and I and the Democratic caucus are working on is, ‘let’s lay the plans, let’s keep pushing, let’s use the White House, get as much as we can, but be ready to go when we win the majority back” in the next election.

The Vital Importance of Affordable Child Care

The lack of affordable and available child care “hurts working families,” Deluzio said. “You see it when folks are so excited when their first kid is kindergarten age. They’re in public school and finally the family is free of struggling to pay for child care.”

La Petite Academy, located at Pittsburgh International Airport, serves as a promising model for child care facilities. Its proximity to workplaces, affordability, and early opening hours cater to the needs of working parents with early shifts.

A Call for Government Investment

Deluzio praised La Petite Academy as a model for other employers and emphasized the importance of federal investment in child care.

“We’re going to be reminding people of that every day,” he said regarding the federal government’s role in providing affordable and accessible child care.