Child care grant foundation of healthy children, workforce

New York’s business people tend to be strong advocates for state and local control of federal resources to ensure they enhance

Heather C. Briccetti is president and CEO of The Business Council of New York State. our unique economy. We also want to do everything possible to strengthen the current and future workforce. For both reasons, we should band together to urge our representatives in Congress to continue supporting the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG).

Here’s why: Every year the federal government grants states CCDBG funding to improve quality child care options and help lower-income parents afford that care so they can stay in the workforce or engage in education and training to improve employment prospects. Recognizing the extent of the nation’s child care crisis, Congress increased its investment by nearly double in the last two fiscal years.

Any significant retreat from this support in 2019 would be bad news for our workforce for three key reasons.

First, the need for child care is especially urgent in New York. Almost two-thirds of our residents live in what are known as “child care deserts” where there are more than three times as many children as licensed child care slots. The problem is especially bad in rural areas, and for parents who have infants and toddlers or those who work evening and weekend shifts.

Second, we need to do much more to ensure our kids are well cared for. A recent study of about 200 child care providers participating in the QUALITYSTARSNY

rating system found only half of those providers were rated at the highest levels.

This is particularly bad news for infants and toddlers because research demonstrates that a child’s brain undergoes its most crucial period of development from birth to age three, when more than one million neural connections are formed every second. That’s why kids need to be in nurturing environments with well-trained providers who give each child plenty of attention.

Third, child care can be outrageously expensive. Right now infant care in a high-quality center in New York averages $15,028 a year, almost double the cost of public college tuition.

Employers, taxpayers and working parents also take a big financial hit when child care isn’t available. A recent report from bi-partisan national business leader group, Readynation, shows it’s costing working parents, taxpayers and employers across the country about $57 billion a year. Parents lose $37 billion due to lost wages and career stagnation when they can’t find reliable care. Taxpayers lose $7 billion due

to lower GDP. The report shows businesses nationwide lose about $13 billion due to lower productivity and costs to replace workers who quit their jobs because of child care problems.

CCDBG is addressing these challenges in substantial ways. Thanks to the federal funding we received from the program in 2018 plus an additional $7 million in state funds, our lawmakers have dedicated about $80 million to improve the quality of our state’s child care centers and home-based child care. Among other things, that money is also supporting professional development of child care providers and is improving the safety of child care facilities.

About $10 million will go toward helping families afford child care. Efforts are also under way to increase provider rates — which can address our “child care desert” issue by making it more financially viable to operate a child care center or provide home-based child care.

Continued support of CCDBG, coupled with other initiatives to make child care more available and affordable, is just good business. It’s also a rich reward for doing the right thing — and the smart thing — by ensuring our working parents have better and more affordable child care options.