Child-care deserts continue to be a grind for working families; what might rural areas gain if they supported care?

Child Care Aware America chart

Even with the best of planning, finding reliable, affordable child care--especially for rural families--can be nearly impossible. "Across America, about half of the population lives somewhere with inadequate access to child care, so-called 'child care deserts.' According to a 2018 report by the Center for American Progress, that number goes up to 59% for residents in rural communities," reports Erik Richards for The Daily Yonder. "These child care deserts are areas where fewer than one-third of parents are able to find available openings at a licensed child care provider."

Angela, a mother of two in rural southern Missouri, told Richards, "I actually told my daycare I was pregnant with my second before any of my family, to secure a spot for him as a child under 2. . . . It is wild to me that I lined up both my daycares a year prior to needing them." Richards reports, "Despite those efforts, Angela describes also having to ask friends and family to watch her kids so she could return to work due to gaps between maternity leave and the soonest available child care opening. She is far from alone in these challenges."

Even when child care can be found, it can be too costly. Richards reports. "These burdens exist across most U.S. states, where annual child care costs range from about $7,000 to more than $20,000 per child. Even states on the lower end of that range fail to meet the Department of Health and Human Services recommendation that families should have to spend no more than 7% of their household income on child care. As far back as 2017, child care has been the single largest household expense across much of the country, coming second only to housing costs in the Western U.S."

If child care were considered a public investment instead of a private concern, area economies would reap the benefits. "According to estimates from the Economic Policy Institute, if Missouri were to cap child care costs at 7% of income, that would expand the state's economy by $2.8 billion," Richards notes. "One of the clearest examples comes from Nobel-Prize-winning economist James Heckman, who points to returns as high as $16 for every $1 invested. Those numbers speak to long-range effects beyond the immediate economic growth."

Richards reports, "Robin Phillips, CEO of Child Care Aware of Missouri, said there are multiple dimensions of economic impact caused by a lack of affordable child care. The families she has worked with and talked to are saving less, working less, spending less, and even deciding to have fewer children. . . . Each of those translates to decreased income-tax revenues, lower sales-tax revenues, higher employee absenteeism and turnover, and lost productivity even for those who are in the workforce. Citing research from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Phillips pegged the impact from absenteeism and turnover due to child care gaps at $1.07 billion. Another marker of how child care scarcity spills over beyond the direct, first-hand experience of families with young children."