By LaDon Love
It’s 6 a.m. in Washington, D.C., and a mother is anxiously doing the math again: pay the electric bill or pay for child care? The answer only leads to more worry: Who is available to watch my baby this week while I’m at work? This is not hyperbole. As the cost of child care rises in the District, it has become increasingly difficult for families to find affordable, quality care. D.C. families pay the most for child care in the nation. The average D.C. resident spends 26 percent of their income on unsubsidized childcare, while the average low-income family, who are more likely to be Black or Brown, spends 32 percent on child care.
This dilemma is a reality for many Black and Brown families today, not just in the nation’s capital, but for many across the nation. As a Black mother, a beneficiary of child care educators, and a community organizer, I am intimately aware of the child care crisis.That is why I, along with child care centers and family homes in over 40 states across the country, will observe National Day Without Child Care on May 13. We will disrupt business as usual and the very systems that rely on child care to function.
The annual National Day Without Child Care brings thousands of children, parents, educators, providers and advocates together at capitol buildings, in D.C. at The John A. Wilson Building, and on social media to raise the visibility of the people who hold the workforce together. Parents, educators and providers are unified in this mission to sustain and grow investments in early childhood education.
For the past month in D.C., we implemented child care center closures on a rolling basis to bring attention to the continuous underinvestment of the Child Care Subsidy Program and the Pay Equity Fund in the district’s budget. The subsidies are lifelines for working parents. The Pay Equity Fund helps workers earn the pay they deserve to keep them in classrooms, improve the quality of education and developmentally appropriate care they provide to children, and reduce health care costs, ultimately benefiting the District overall. Make no mistake, the District has paved the way for increasing standards in the quality of care, education and pay parity in the early education space. And now we must strengthen those investments. Closing centers on an ongoing basis in D.C. is necessary to make city leaders feel the sting of an ecosystem that will crumble without the vital services that child care centers and family homes provide.
To maintain current enrollment this fiscal year, the subsidy program needs at least an additional $45 million, and for the next fiscal year, $177.1 million. To address budget constraints and curb new enrollment, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser recently announced that new subsidy applicants will be placed on a waitlist effective May 12, with no end in sight. Making parents wait for child care is unjust. Jobs cannot wait. Bills cannot wait. The economy cannot wait. Families’ livelihoods and the development of their children should always be prioritized.
For the next fiscal year, Mayor Bowser has proposed cutting reimbursement rates in the Child Care Subsidy Program and gutting the Pay Equity Fund, save for investments in healthcare for workers. This is after providers were already forced to cut the pay rates for higher-qualified educators last year.These cuts are particularly harmful to Black women, who represent a disproportionate number of workers in this field. They account for 18 percent of child care workers in the United States, while making up only 13 percent of the population. But they aren’t earning what they should. The average Black early childhood educator makes 78 cents less per hour than their white counterparts.
This is a tight budget season, but workers and families shouldn’t have to pay for it — not when the consequences are so dire. And not when there is enough wealth in the District to pay for all the programs and services families need. Without additional investment, mothers may be forced to cut work hours, which could lead to the loss of employee-sponsored health insurance, thereby increasing the number of people who need Medicaid and other public benefits. Other parents might adjust by adding hours to account for rising costs. That amounts to a $175 million increase for overtime pay and $297 million increase needed for Medicaid.
Reducing funding not only undercuts families, but also small businesses and the District at large. The underinvestment of child care can destabilize an entire economy. Families cannot work without reliable child care and educators cannot provide that care without earning a fair wage. Women of color — and their children — represent what is great about D.C., from our advocacy and compassion to our boldness and power. We implore those who advocate for children to demand that Mayor Bowser and other city leaders fund our child care programs, and create stability and prosperity for D.C. families who need it the most.
