Expand, don’t cut, child care for working families

Every parent knows that child care is one of the most important needs in raising kids. Children deserve a safe space to grow and learn, and parents should be able to go to work with peace of mind. However, affordable child care is almost impossible to find. Now, it’s going to become even harder for low-income families because New Mexico is planning to cut child-care assistance.

New Mexico’s policymakers stress the importance of early childhood programs, but the reality is that these programs will be cut, leaving our families without options unless immediate action is taken.

The Child Care Assistance program, funded through federal and state dollars, is proven to help low-income families maintain stable employment or attend school. However, only one third of eligible children have access to the program. Rather than expanding access, the state is proposing new rules that would make low-income families, who earn between 160 to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, no longer eligible for assistance and require even lower-income families to pay unaffordable rates.

This is a huge mistake. Affordable child care is crucial for families’ financial stability. It’s also a critical part of early growth and learning for babies to young children, which includes Pre-K. These earliest years, studies show, are the most critical for child development and lay the foundation for all that is to come. The high cost of child care, however, forces too many families to choose care that is less safe or reliable or lose out on work and school opportunities.

Even for those who get help from the state’s program, child care is still unaffordable. The federal government recommends that the state provide enough assistance so that families pay no more than seven percent of their income toward child care costs. New Mexico’s program requires families to pay well over 10 to 15 percent of their income if they have multiple children.

This is simply too costly for most families who qualify for the program, especially for families living in deep poverty. CYFD data shows that child care assistance enrollment drops by more than half for families with incomes between 25 and 50 percent of the federal poverty level — when the state begins charging unaffordable copays. Most low-income families are left with no choice but to forego child care or reduce work hours and income for their household.

We need an affordable payment structure for child care that caps costs for low-income families at seven percent of income or less, with special protections for families living in deep poverty.

After a history of changes to the childcare assistance program done without public input in violation of state law, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration has the ability now to correct course. For example, in 2010, CYFD illegally increased costs for families by 10 percent without public input or making formal regulation changes. Prior administrations also illegally reduced eligibility without public comment.

We applaud the new CYFD administration for settling a lawsuit addressing these problems and being transparent about eligibility changes. But New Mexico’s children do not deserve these cuts.

With projections now showing state revenue will increase by more than $1 billion, CYFD could easily get supplemental funding from the Legislature to prevent these cuts. In the next session, our lawmakers must prioritize child care and start making meaningful changes to expand the early childhood system for our state.

We encourage families and child care providers to make their voice heard — every working family deserves access to affordable child care.