Child Care Deserts

10/18/2022

When you do nothing you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better.
Maya Angelou, American Poet and Activist, 1928 – 2014

In the small town of Condon, Oregon, Jeanine Conboy closes her center for five days a year, to provide professional development for her staff—an investment in quality care. With the entire town dependent on Conboy’s program, “that means our public transportation department doesn’t run that day, according to Elizabeth Farrar Campbell, the county judge and commission chair, “We are so interconnected.”

Testifying before the US House Budget Committee, Rasheed Malik of the Center for American Progress stated, “the numerous benefits to high-quality child care that decades of academic and policy research have identified…fall into three categories: 1) family and health benefits; 2) children’s educational benefits; and 3) broad-based economic benefits. I would highlight the fact that benefits are usually proportional to the quality and intensity of the child care benefits that are studied.”

However, an estimated 10% of child care programs had to shut their doors during the pandemic, leaving an increase in child care ‘deserts,’ especially in rural areas, according to Child Care Aware of America. Half of US residents now live in communities where less than a third of children have access to a slot in licensed care. As Corona Virus Relief Funds are spent down, other solutions are needed. Low pay and benefits can’t compete with other sectors, while increasing wages leads to costs for families that compete with rent or mortgages.

Rethink early childhood finance in an Engaging Exchange with Karen Foster-Jorgensen on Tuesday, October 25, at 7 pm US eastern time.

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