Twenty Years of Progress, but We’re Not There Yet for Children or Families

Today, November 18, Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) chaired his last hearing on the state of children before retiring, and I was honored to testify as a witness at the hearing. A significant part of his legacy is the enactment of the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) in 1990. For twenty years, the CCDBG has provided parents the ability to work knowing their children are in safe environments and children with the care essential to their growth and development.

One of these parents, Sheila Merkison, a mother from Maine who was on her state’s waiting list for child care assistance, testified before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in 2002 about the importance of child care assistance. Sheila had left her abusive husband and was earning just $18,000 a year. Without assistance, Sheila could see no way to work and keep her son in child care; she told the Committee, “I’m asking for the ability to work to provide for my son.” After testifying, Sheila received the assistance she needed. Since then, Sheila has held a steady job as an insurance agent, purchased a home, and watched her child excel academically; her son was recently invited to test for the Johns Hopkins University Talent Search.

Despite the significant benefits CCDBG has had for children and families, only one in six children eligible for federal child care assistance receives it. With inadequate funding, states make Solomon-like choices between limiting assistance for families, asking parents receiving child care assistance to contribute more to the cost of care, and setting low reimbursement rates for child care providers.

Discussions about whether early learning funds should be targeted to helping parents work or ensuring that children get a high quality early learning experiences continue, although these are interrelated and important goals. When parents do better, children do better. When children participate in high-quality early learning programs, they are more likely to succeed in school and in life.

With state budgets upended, working families are left in the lurch. In October, Washington state lowered its income eligibility limit for child care assistance from 200 percent to 175 percent of the federal poverty level, and plans to reduce the income limit further, to 150 percent of poverty, as of January 1. Since February 2009, Arizona has cut the number of children receiving child care assistance from 48,000 to 30,000. Where are those children and are their parents still able to work? As more states cut funding for child care, parents are left scrambling and children’s basic health and safety are in jeopardy.

In the coming weeks, Congress will face many critical decisions, including funding for child care and Head Start. The fate of many children, parents, and providers is hanging in the balance. To parents like Sheila Merkison, these funds make all the difference. Sheila wrote to me this week to express gratitude on behalf of herself and all the other mothers who have been helped by the CCDBG. Without child care assistance, Sheila said, “I would not have been able to accomplish any of this.”