Talk about a huge oversight. All the Idaho Legislature seems focused on is fighting abortion, enhancing the rights of gun owners and trying to put the public schools out of business by handing tax dollars over to private academies.
What if Idaho’s child care network, which already is in a precarious situation, suffers another reversal? The working parents of this state — and the businesses that rely upon them — are going to want some answers from the public servants who supposedly work on their behalf.
The Gem State already faced a dearth of affordable child care services going into the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the time, a Bipartisan Policy Center analysis said the state required services for 74,670 children, but had space for only 55,850. Some of the areas with the most severe shortages were located within north central Idaho.
The economic shutdown of 2020 pulled even more supports out from under that industry. For those facilities that remained open, a new challenge emerged — a labor shortage.
With a median wage of $12 an hour, child care operators could not compete with jobs offering as much as $20 an hour. If they raised tuition to cover the higher wages, they might price their service beyond the reach of working families. Even at that, an industry with such thin profit margins depends on keeping its classrooms full. So it’s a vicious circle.
What emerged was a federal lifeline through the American Rescue Plan Act.
Relief grants offered staffers an extra $300 a month.
And to cover operating costs, federal dollars provided these businesses with stipends ranging from $1,000 a month for families or relatives to $20,000 a month for the largest centers with the heaviest overhead.
Most of that stops at the end of June — and no federal help will be available when the current fiscal year concludes on Sept. 30.
As Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children Executive Director Beth Oppenheimer wrote in the Idaho Statesman this week, losing that support will shutter many of Idaho’s child care operations.
AEYC’s survey found the following:
l 87.8% cited wages as the biggest factor behind staff turnover.
l Were more staff members available to work, 60% of these operators could serve more families.
l 75% of child care centers rely on federal grants to pay competitive wages or cover operating costs.
l While 52.6% of those centers expect to survive the loss of those grants, 33.2% are unsure about their prospects and 14% will close their doors.
l Once the grants expire, 57% expect to raise tuition. There would be staff layoffs in 37% of those businesses.
If Idaho employers find it difficult to fill jobs now, just wait until working parents either can’t line up child care or conclude they can’t afford it.
The choice is obvious: A state sitting on a $1 billion surplus invests in the infrastructure of child care so that its economy can prosper — or it suffers the consequences.
“The need is immediate, closures on the horizon, the time for solutions is now,” Oppenheimer wrote.
In a state where lawmakers still refuse to invest in early childhood education, even if it comes to accepting federal money to pay for it, this is far from certain. Who knows how many lawmakers agree with the sentiments of former state Rep. — and Idaho Freedom Foundation senior policy fellow — Ron Nate, R-Rexburg?
“I belong to a political party with the platform that says it is the responsibility of the families to take care of children, not government programs and that the families are better at nurturing and taking care of kids than government,” Nate said last year. “Government having a role in the day care process and government as baby sitting is less nurturing than the family. We should do everything we can to encourage families to be able to take care of their kids and not add to government programs that take kids out of families for hours a day.”
You may want to check in with your state lawmakers. Don’t take it for granted that they know — or care — about this. — M.T.
