Child care is so expensive, I can't afford to work. Congress must help young families.
The city of Mount Washington, Kentucky is home to just over 18,000 people. My blended family accounts for six of them. We love our community, its views and its proximity to Louisville. But we require two paychecks to make sure our children have everything they need, and like far too many other parents around the country, I had to stop working due to the high and rising costs of child care. My family simply could not afford for me to work, when my paycheck went towards nothing but child care every month.
As a former early childhood educator, I understand that child care providers are underpaid, understaffed and undervalued for the crucial work they do. As a parent, I can tell you how much worse an already frayed system of child care has become in the last several years. But our lawmakers have yet to address the urgency and desperation that families with young children are feeling. I’m calling on my elected representative, Brett Guthrie, to stand up for the countless families in his district who are struggling to bear the full financial weight of child care on their own – without many of the policies in place that every other industrialized nation takes for granted.
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COVID-19 shutdown our childcare center. It never reopened.
When my youngest child was born, there was an affordable child care center in the neighborhood. As the pandemic progressed, that center and so many others closed. We looked for options, but simply put, we couldn’t afford anything remotely close to us.
The median income in Mount Washington is $35,608, while the average cost of one child to attend child care in Kentucky is $9,685 each year. The average family in Kentucky pays nearly 20% of their monthly income on child care for one child. In my family, that math doesn’t work. In Kentucky, only 5% of infants and toddlers in families with low or moderate incomes have access to child care subsidies. Most working class families can’t afford to work and access affordable care for their children.
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Right now, Congress is deciding on a budget for next year, with programs that have benefited my children and others in the community hanging in the balance. Some policymakers in Washington are threatening big cutbacks that would slash programs that help support young children like mine including medical care, early intervention for children with disabilities, nutrition, and yes, early education.
As the debate over the nation’s budget intensifies, I am asking Rep. Guthrie and his colleagues to remember families and the services and programs that help us work, keep our children healthy and fed, and nurture them to learn and grow. Families here in Mount Washington and around the country need federal investments. We simply cannot afford cuts to the programs that help families and our babies thrive.
Olivia Bartlett is a mother and former early childhood educator who lives in Mount Washington, KY.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Child care is so expensive, I can't afford to work. Congress must help
