Quality child care now within Texas’ grasp
Child care is the small, silent engine that drives Texas businesses. It is as simple as this: If our young can’t access quality child care, much of the Texas workforce can’t return to work. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the essential role child care plays in our economy. It is the overlooked sector that makes all other work possible.
With a billion-dollar infusion by the federal government dedicated to child care, we now have a unique opportunity. First, to ensure that necessary child care locations are open so families can return to work, and second, to enhance and ensure the quality of that early learning and care.
As World War II came to an end, Winston Churchill is attributed with saying that no crisis should ever go to waste. The arrival of more than $1 billion in federal aid from the Consolidated Appropriations Act to support the child care industry in Texas has the potential to transform the crisis created by COVID into an opportunity. Investing these federal dollars to expand access to quality, affordable child care will positively impact our workforce, businesses and Texas families for years to come.
Practically all industries — especially small businesses — have faced setbacks due to COVID-19 in the form of closures, layoffs and tremendous economic disruption. No smallbusiness industry has suffered more than licensed child care; 25 percent of all child care centers in Texas closed at least temporarily during the pandemic. And within the first five months of the pandemic, 184 Texas communities became new child care deserts — meaning demand for child care far outweighed supply.
Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Workforce Commission are wisely creating a plan for the thoughtful use of this new incoming federal money. The priority is immediate support for struggling providers with a clear eye on increasing quality child care. Funds for child care should be spent with accountability and defined outcomes. And because these dollars are a one-shot stimulus, Texas must spend them without creating an ongoing expense to the state after the federal money is gone.
The Legislature is also accountable. If taxpayers are going to pay for early-learning child care, it should be quality. Three bipartisan bills have been filed this session that deserve attention and support from legislators, the public and the business community to ensure just that.
Together these three bills will enhance Texas’ ability to increase the quality of early education, ensure accountability for how state dollars are spent on child care and provide support to enhance the child care workforce.
Half of child care providers in Texas participate in the child care subsidy program, but only 20 percent qualify as “quality” child care, as defined by Texas law. State Rep. Angie Chen Button, R-richardson, has filed House Bill 1792 to expand the state’s capacity to verify the quality of child care providers in the Texas Rising Star Program and therefore expand families’ access to quality child care.
House Bill 2607, filed by state Rep. James Talarico, D-round Rock, ensures all subsidized child care programs will participate in the Texas Rising Star quality rating system, which will provide accountability for public funds allocated to the child care sector.
Child care is all about the people who directly provide care to kids, and child care educators are among the lowest paid people in the Texas workforce. State Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-houston, has filed House Bill 619, which is designed to support the child care workforce and raise compensation and education of child care workers, thereby ensuring that a more talented and better trained staff is teaching our young.
Texas has a tremendous opportunity we cannot afford to get wrong. Prudent investment of federal dollars along with passage of key legislation will support small businesses, save taxpayer money, and serve more kids and improve their academic outcomes
The bipartisan emergency investment and bipartisan legislation demonstrates a shared understanding that without quality early learning and child care, Texans cannot work and the economy cannot recover.
We have a history of bipartisan support for quality early childhood education in Texas. Our public voice must drive decision-making that takes a long-term view and maximizes this opportunity for the benefit of all of our children and families.
Let your voice be heard. Contact your representative and senator in the Texas Legislature and let’s use the $1 billion in relief funds and the 87th legislative session to protect our child care providers, increase access to quality care for young children in Texas and put our workforce back to work.