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Dr. Pamela High[/caption]
We are facing a child care crisis in the U.S. and in Rhode Island that is poised to exacerbate the health care and economic crises now unfolding as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent Washington University national survey found that 24% of families with children lost a job or income during the pandemic due to a lack of suitable child care, with these impacts concentrated in Hispanic households, low-income households, self-employed households and households with very young children.
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Anna Aizer[/caption]
The pandemic has created a near perfect storm that is threatening our nation’s child care infrastructure. Parents are worried about health risks as they struggle to find and pay for child care that is safe and promotes children’s learning and development. Child care programs are worried about health risks to their staff, children and families as they struggle to recruit and retain qualified early childhood educators. Due to inadequate funding, the wages of child care educators (on average, just $12 per hour in Rhode Island) are among the lowest in our state.
Many programs are now struggling to remain open with higher costs associated with the increased staffing needed to maintain small, stable groups of children and adults, purchasing personal protective equipment, implementing enhanced cleaning protocols, and providing extended paid sick time for staff during quarantine periods. Due to these increased costs, the Center for American Progress has estimated the pandemic could lead to the permanent loss of half of the already inadequate child care supply in the U.S.
We cannot allow this to happen.
Child care is essential to working families, to the economic future of working women and to our nation’s economic recovery. A child care sector that is thriving, not just surviving, requires highly qualified and well-compensated educators who have paid sick time and comprehensive health insurance. High-quality child care is needed to promote children’s development and learning and address achievement gaps that often appear in early childhood and only widen over time.
Rhode Island has carefully developed a child care reopening plan aimed at maximizing safety and access. However, the costs of this plan will stress this already fragile sector. Gov. Gina M. Raimondo and the R.I. Department of Human Services have recognized this looming crisis and responded by temporarily increasing child care provider reimbursement rates, paying provider subsidies based on enrollment and establishing a $5 million Child Care Relief Fund to offset facility and occupancy costs associated with shutdowns. These have been successful strategies, but this support will soon expire, well before the pandemic ends.
To ensure that our child care sector survives to support Rhode Island’s working families, these rate increases and payment practices must be made permanent. The Child Care Relief Fund should be expanded to help more providers with staffing costs, including programs that serve middle-income families not eligible for assistance but unable to pay the full cost of quality care. In addition, we should implement recommendations from Rhode Island’s Infant/Toddler Educator Task Force, that the state offer a wage enhancement to attract and retain qualified early educators in child care programs.
While Rhode Island is facing a difficult budget environment, any cuts to state child care funding would be shortsighted, threatening the supply of child care slots at precisely the time they are needed most.
At the federal level, Congress must act to pass the Child Care Is Essential Act, a $50 billion infusion of aid to stabilize the child care industry that would bring over $100 million to Rhode Island for this essential work.
There will be no robust recovery without a strong system of child care. That is why now is the time for our state and Congressional leaders to support working families and young children by investing in our nation’s critical child care infrastructure.
Dr. Pamela High is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a professor of pediatrics at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Anna Aizer is department chair and professor of economics at Brown.
