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In mid-January, the Biden administration released the details for their proposed $1.9 trillion stimulus package. Tucked inside is some well-deserved good news for child care.
The proposal includes 40 billion dollars earmarked for the child care sector. It’s the most ambitious relief spending that the industry’s seen so far in this pandemic. And given how hard the coronavirus has battered the sector, support on this scale was a long time coming.
But is it enough?
To get an expert’s perspective, I called up Elliot Haspel. Elliot is an early childhood policy expert, a writer and a parent. He served as a policy analyst at the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation, and is the author of Crawling Behind: America’s Childcare Crisis & How to Fix It.
Elliot’s first reaction to the plan is optimistic. As he points out, this $40 billion, plus the $10 billion from December’s stimulus gets us to $50 billion in relief for child care, which is what many experts called for to help the sector through the pandemic.
“In a lot of ways, this is the lifeline the child care sector has been waiting for,” Elliot says. “This should be sufficient to carry the sector forward for the next six to nine months. It’ll be enough to keep programs from going under, to reopen, and to deal with the fact that enrolments won’t bounce back right away.”
Right now, the whole $1.9 trillion plan is still only a proposal. But how exactly would that $40 billion for child care get spent — and how do we turn this plan into real-world relief?
We’ll get into all the details down below.
First thing’s first: Let’s break down that $40 billion in child care relief spending.
Direct from the Biden administration’s fact sheet, here are the three core ways this spending package would bring long-awaited relief to the child care sector:
This initiative would make it easier for parents to afford child care, ultimately bringing more income to providers — and will also ease financial pressures on the many child care workers with children of their own.
While that $40 billion directly targets the child care sector, it represents only two percent of the entire $1.9 trillion spending package.
Other parts of the administration’s American Rescue Plan could also bring significant relief to workers and families in the sector. Here’s how:
It’s worth reiterating that right now, all this is still a proposal. It hasn’t yet become real legislation, which needs to happen before we can cash any checks.
To become real-life relief for child care, Biden’s American Rescue Plan will first need to pass both chambers of Congress. Along the way, it will be subject to amendments, delays and negotiations from both sides of the aisle.
Republicans have proposed their own trimmed-down version of a stimulus bill, which budgets $20 billion for child care — but they don’t have enough votes to pass that through Congress without Democratic support, which is unlikely. And just this week, Democrats moved to kick off the budget reconciliation process, a shortcut by which they can push ahead with Biden’s proposal without needing Republican support.
It’s unlikely that the full $1.9 trillion plan will pass in its original form — proposals this size always get tweaked along the way. However, Elliot is confident the specific $40 billion for child care isn’t at high risk of getting cut.
He points to the fact that in past relief spending, child care funds haven’t really been a point of conflict between Republicans and Democrats. Plus, vocal child care advocates like Sens. Patty Murray and Bernie Sanders can help defend this spending.
“Obviously, let’s not count our chickens before they hatch. But I do think child care can be reasonably confident that a significant portion of what’s proposed, if not all, will get approved,” he says. “It could get trimmed, sure. But I think it would be pretty surprising, and immensely disappointing, if child care spending gets cut.”
Approving this proposal is just the first step. After that, we’ll have to see how the money gets distributed. As Elliot notes, figuring out how to implement a spending plan on this scale may take some time.
“The CARES Act was implemented back in March, and there were still programs waiting to see that money in October,” Elliot says. “Our bureaucratic system is just not a nimble framework — so we’ll have to see how that pans out as this turns into legislation.”
At the time of this story’s publication, we haven’t yet seen any concrete timeline for turning this proposal into real-life relief.
But you don’t have to sit on your hands until that happens.
In the here and now, you can contact your local congressperson, and let them know how important this child care spending is for you. Given the size and vital importance of the American child care sector, making sure your voices get heard can help underscore the importance of these $40 billion during the negotiation processes.
“Make sure your representatives know that you want this proposed funding to be passed in full. If it means something to you, tell your representatives. It’s always positive when our politicians hear that people are really paying attention,” Elliot says.
Contacting your representative only takes a few minutes. If you’re unsure who that representative might be, you can find out and get their contact information right here. If you’d like to read more from Elliot Haspel on the state of child care in the US, and why this $40 billion means so much, you can keep reading right here.
Guidance from the Danish Health Ministry, translated in full to English.
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The full recommendations from a working group of over 70 nursery chains in the UK.
Please note: here at Famly we love sharing creative activities for you to try with the children at your setting, but you know them best. Take the time to consider adaptions you might need to make so these activities are accessible and developmentally appropriate for the children you work with. Just as you ordinarily would, conduct risk assessments for your children and your setting before undertaking new activities, and ensure you and your staff are following your own health and safety guidelines.
