Federal and state cuts to child care subsidies leave lower-income Americans with few options

Child care centers can be high-labor, low-profit businesses.
(Photo by McKinley Hess via Hechinger Report)

To prepare for federal budget cuts, some states have opted to slash their early learning programs. The overall reductions to child care subsidies have left lower-income parents struggling with higher co-payments and fewer slots, while child care providers face unexpected pay reductions and delayed payments.

"Colorado, Maryland and New Jersey recently stopped accepting new families into their child care assistance programs," reports Jackie Mader of The Hechinger Report, which covers education. Indiana and Arkansas announced lower reimbursement rates for child care providers serving lower-income households.

Many U.S. parents with infants and preschoolers already contend with the scarcity and high cost of child care nationwide, but the difficulties are harder on poorer Americans. Mader explains, "Experts warn this trend in some states of scaling back early childhood investments is widening an existing nationwide disparity in the availability of affordable, high-quality child care."

Reduced and delayed payments to child care providers could further shrink the number of child care slots, which already don't meet current needs. Mader reports, "Child care programs are expensive to run and, with limited public support, providers rely heavily on tuition from parents to pay their bills."

Daniel Hains, the chief policy officer at the D.C.-based National Association for the Education of Young Children, told Mader, "Almost every state is facing a very, very, very significant pullback of federal dollars. . . . It’s going to result in lower quality care for children, or it’s going to result in families pulling back from the workforce and facing greater economic insecurity."