“You don’t have to be in poverty to need assistance to pay for child care”: Perspectives from middle-income New Mexico families receiving subsidized care

Opportunities and Risks in Individual Tax Reform: Testimony Before the US Senate Committee on Finance

Persistent unmet preventive and developmental health care needs of children in low-income families are a national concern. Recently, there have been efforts to promote developmental services as part of primary care for all young children. However, there is limited research to determine whether the neediest families are well in universal interventions. In our study, we assessed if disparities persist in utilization of developmental services, well child care, and satisfaction with care among low-, middle-, and high-income families participating in Healthy Steps for Young Children. Healthy Steps is a national experiment that incorporated developmental services into primary care for children from birth to 3 years of age. In the United States, 15 pediatric practices participated in this prospective study. At birth, 2,963 children were enrolled between September 1996 and November 1998 and followed through 33 months of age. The utilization of developmental services, satisfaction with care, and receipt of age-appropriate well child visits were measured at 30-33 months and adjusted for demographic and economic covariates. We found that the adjusted odds of low-income families did not differ from high-income families in receipt of four or more Healthy Steps services, a home visit, or discussing five or more child rearing topics. Low- and middle-income families had reduced adjusted odds of receiving a developmental assessment and books to read. The adjusted odds of low- and middle-income families did not differ from high-income families in being very satisfied with care provided or receiving age-appropriate well child visits. A universal practice-based intervention such as Healthy Steps has the potential to reduce income disparities in the utilization of preventive services, timely well child care, and satisfaction with care.

Assessing President Trump's Child Care Proposals

During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump proposed three tax benefits for child care: a credit for low-income families, an above-the-line deduction, and tax-subsidized savings accounts. While these proposals laudably bring attention to the heavy burden that child care costs place on many low- and middle-income families, they are a case study in how not to reform child care policy. They are unduly complicated, arbitrarily exclude certain low-income families, deliver support well after child care payments are due, and provide the largest benefits to higher-income families who need the least help.

This paper presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of the effects of child care costs on family labor supply and the demand for market child care. The model is a framework for cross-section estimation of the effects of child care costs on labor supply and child care use. It applies to households having young children requiring continuous care and in which both the mother and 1 other potential child care provider are present. The 3 potential sources of child care are the mother the potential informal provider and the market. Using data from the 1980 baseline household survey of the Employment Opportunity Pilot Projects this empirical analysis uses a subsample of 6170 households in which there is a married woman under age 45 with her spouse present at the time of the survey at least 1 child under age 14 and nonmissing data on key variables. Results show that 1) higher market child care costs discourage women from working even when an informal source of care is available indicating that such informal care is an imperfect substitute for market care; 2) a higher wage rate for the mother encourages her to work thus a higher wage rate increases the probability of using market child care; 3) the number of children requiring care has a negative impact on the probability of the women working with the largest impact caused by younger children; 4) nonwage income has a negative impact on the probability of the woman working; and 5) black women are more likely to work than whites and are statistically more likely than whites to use market child care if they do work. This family labor supply model predicts that the cost of market child care will affect household decisions on labor supply and child care use. Estimates of a qualitative choice model provide strong confirmation that child care costs affect such decisions. The responsiveness of the labor supply of mothers to child care costs demonstrated in this study indicate that such subsidies do have their intended effect of encouraging labor supply. The fact that a large proportion of current child care subsidies benefit primarily middle and upper income families via the income tax credit suggests that the labor supply effets of such subsidies may in practice be stronger for less needy families than for low income families. Employer-subsidized child care may become an increasingly popular tool for attracting mothers into the labor force.

The prevalence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection in 103 children attending a single day care center was compared with that of 62 children kept at home. Demographic features of the day care group were similar to those of the home care group; in both groups, most of the children were white, were from middle-income families with two or fewer children, and had parents with 15 or more years of education. Ten of 57 (18%) children in home care had serum antibody to cytomegalovirus (CMV) and 2/25 (8%) had viruria. In contrast, 59/103 (57%) of children from the day care center were shedding CMV in urine or saliva. Although less than 10% of infants aged less than 1 year were excreting CMV, 78% of infants studied between 12 and 18 months of age had CMV isolated from a saliva or urine specimen. Group day care appears likely to result in early acquisition of CMV. Excretion of CMV by children in day care centers could result in transmission of the virus to susceptible day care workers or mothers, with the potential risk of fetal infection.

Data from a nationally representative survey of child care centers and a 5-site, observational study of centers were used to examine the quality of care provided to children from low-income families. Comparisons were made to a national sample of centers; among Head Start, public school-sponsored, and other community-based subsidized centers; and among centers that served families from differing socioeconomic groups. The quality of care in centers that served predominantly low-income children was adequate, but highly variable, with structural indices exhibiting higher quality than observations of global quality and of staff-child interactions. When compared to Head Start and public school-sponsored centers, the community-based centers had smaller groups and fewer children per teacher for preschoolers, but also had less well educated and compensated staff. Centers that predominantly served children from upper-income families provided the highest quality of care across multiple indices, and those that predominantly served children from middle-income families almost uniformly provided the poorest quality of care. The centers that served children from low-income families did not differ significantly in quality from the upper-income centers on most indices. However, the teachers in these programs were observed to be less sensitive and more harsh than teachers in the centers that served more advantaged families. The implications of the findings for research and policy are discussed.

The main aim of this study is to examine the educational policy system of Kurdistan Region, teacher planning and attendance at kindergarten are inadequate. The problems in educational system are many for instance; lack of funding, low student motivation, low quality of kindergarten, lack of research, lack of rooms, lack of number of qualified teachers, out-dated curriculum. As a consequence, a large majority of Kurdistan graduates from emerge from kindergarten without the technical or social skills needed for them to be strong contributors in the future life. Education policy is principles and government arrangement making in instructive circle, and in addition the gathering of laws and tenets that administer the operation of instruction frameworks. Instruction happens in numerous structures for some reasons through numerous foundations. A quantitative method used to gather relevant information regarding the policy of educational system in kindergartens in Kurdistan region. Methods comprise the procedures used for generating, collecting and evaluating data. The researchers gathered data for the study through distributing questionnaires as primary data. The study was carried out in kindergartens in Erbil. The participants of the present study were 128 staff from different kindergartens in Erbil. The sampling technique will be random sampling method, where all employees from the kindergartens had equal chances of being selected for the sample. The population of the experimental study is all kindergartens in Erbil and the sample size is 128 units. Many different Kindergarten policies have been shown to produce positive effects on children’s learning and development, but those effects vary in size and persistence by type of program. Well-designed Kindergarten education policies produce long-term improvements in Kindergarten success, including higher achievement test scores, lower rates of grade repetition and special education, and higher educational attainment. Some Kindergarten policies are also associated with reduced delinquency and crime in childhood and adulthood. The strongest evidence suggests that economically disadvantaged children reap long-term benefits from Kindergarten. However, children from all other socioeconomic backgrounds have been found to benefit as well. Current public policies for child care, Children from middle-income families have least access, but many children in poverty also lack preschool experiences. Increasing Kindergarten subsidies under current federal and state policies is particularly unlikely to produce any meaningful improvements in children’s learning and development. Given the poor quality of much child care, it might instead produce mild negative consequences.

Across these essays, we are in agreement with David Blau that: (a) early childhood education and care (ECEC) is critical to children's development and requires significant additional investment; (b) targeted and universal programs provide children—especially low-income children—short- and long-term benefits (Cascio, forthcoming; Cascio & Schanzenbach, 2013; Gray-Lobe, Pathak, & Walters, 2021); and (c) U.S.-based research shows universal programs provide higher quality standards and better outcomes for disadvantaged children than targeted programs (Cascio, forthcoming). Yet, we disagree that expanding means-tested programs to low-income families is the best solution. We argue here that a means-tested approach is inadequate to: (1) ensure middle-class families’ access to affordable high-quality programming; (2) raise the wages of ECEC workers; and (3) facilitate maternal employment across the income distribution. Hence the important need for a universal approach to ECEC. Blau argues that expanding low-income children's access to ECEC is economically efficient but he is reluctant to establish clear income thresholds to qualify families for subsidized ECEC. We argue that this difficulty is because childcare is unaffordable across nearly all income levels. Middle income families—who neither qualify for subsidies nor have high salaries to outspend costs—are particularly vulnerable to high childcare costs and low-quality provisions (Chaudry & Waldfogel, 2017; Hotz & Wiswall, 2019). Thus, as evidence shows, it is incorrect to assume non-low-income families can afford high-quality ECEC. Moreover, targeted programs will not solve access issues faced by millions of families across income levels (Hotz & Wiswall, 2019; Malik et al., 2018). Childcare deserts—where demand for ECEC far exceeds supply—are especially likely to occur in middle-income neighborhoods, given the absence of federal and state funding that is available in low-income communities and high purchasing power of high-income neighborhoods to boost childcare capacity (Malik et al., 2018). Expanding only low-income funding would fail to solve capacity problems plaguing means-tested and market-driven approaches. Blau rightly advocates for higher quality programming for low-income children but ignores the link between program quality and widespread ECEC labor issues. Despite the importance and intensity of these jobs, ECEC workers rarely earn benefits such as health insurance and are paid 40 percent less than the median hourly wage of workers in other occupations ($12.24 vs. $20.17) (Banerjee, Gould, & Sawo, 2021; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020). As a result, childcare staff turnover rates are high, with 26 to 40 percent leaving their jobs each year (Totenhagen et al., 2016). The pandemic compounded many of these supply issues, with the childcare sector dramatically declining after the onset of the pandemic (McLean et al., 2021). Despite economic recovery, the “early care and education sector remains in crisis, with 131,200 fewer jobs today than at the outset of the pandemic” (Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, 2022). Attracting and retaining qualified talent is critical to delivering high-quality ECEC (Manning et al., 2017). Labor shortages disrupt children's routines, require centers to increase teacher-child ratios, and divert critical resources to recruiting, training, and retaining employees (U.S. Department of the Treasury, 2021). These issues are industry-wide, meaning expanding targeted programs is an inadequate solution. Rather, childcare requires a universal infrastructure with stricter regulation of programming, children's outcomes, and staff pay. Blau's argument related to cost and efficiency excludes the extensive economic benefits of a universal program that would result from increases in women's employment across income levels. As we highlighted in our main essay, universal ECEC programs significantly increase mothers’ employment (e.g., Malik, 2019). Such increases would improve women's overall economic mobility, reduce gender gaps in wages and labor force participation, generate additional tax revenues for the U.S. government, and have other important wide-scale societal benefits. Estimates suggest that a universal ECEC program would provide $138 billion in increased economic output through increased parental employment ($48B); tax gains from reduced childcare disruptions on employment ($60B); and economic expansion in the childcare industry ($30B) (Kashen et al., 2022). This $138 billion return on investment far exceeds Blau's estimated cost of $70.2B for implementation of a universal system for 3- and 4-year-old children. Moreover, this $138B is likely an underestimation of the return on investment because these calculations do not include the additional savings that would be gained from: (1) reduced reliance on government support programs; (2) increases in family incomes, spending, and standards of living; and (3) long-term economic benefits to children's better education, and improved behavioral and employment outcomes into adulthood (see main essay). Ultimately, universalizing access to high-quality ECEC is one of the most efficient and effective public investments. JILL E. YAVORSKY is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 9201 University City Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28223 (e-mail: jyavorsk@uncc.edu). LEAH RUPPANNER is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Founding Director of The Future of Work Lab at the University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010 Australia (e-mail: leah.ruppanner@unimelb.edu.au). Both authors contributed equally to their two essays in this debate; they are co-lead authors.

A qualitative descriptive study was conducted to identify characteristics and themes in the lives of pregnant adolescents. Eight pregnant adolescents between the ages of 16 and 18 years of age were recruited from a large public prenatal clinic. Half the adolescents were African-American and half were European American. Fully 75% lived in middle-income families and 25% in lower income families. At the time of participation in the study, 75% remained in high school and 25% had dropped out. The girls identified their mothers as "the person who knows me best". The eight dyads participated in individual interviews. The adolescents' views of themselves, of their characteristics and behavior, and their mothers' perceptions of the adolescents' characteristics and behaviors were elicited. Home observation notes and demographic data also were collected. The template method of content analysis and a codebook from two preliminary pilot studies were used to analyze the interview data. Findings included reports that these pregnant adolescents had adult responsibilities at an early age, which frequently included child care of younger siblings. The families viewed the girls as mature and obedient, and the mothers did not think the adolescents were sexually active prior to the pregnancy. It is significant that these teenagers were frequently reported to be "good little girls", and others did not view them as at-risk. The findings from this study can be used for early identification of adolescents at risk for becoming pregnant and to develop specific preventive measures.

A 1995 study of the family child care homes portion of the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) found that nearly 80 percent of children served came from middle and higher income families. To refocus the program on low-income children, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act of 1996 mandated an income-targeted meal reimbursement structure and called for a study of its effects. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) contracted with Abt Associates Inc., for a study of the effects of tiered meal reimbursement on the family child care homes portion of the CACFP. A key study finding was that the family child care homes component of the CACFP became substantially more focused on low-income children after tiering was introduced.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV), the leading cause of congenital viral infection, occurs commonly among children in group day care. Urinary or salivary excretion of CMV was found frequently among children in three centers serving mostly middle-income white families. Although there was center-to-center variation, CMV excretion was uncommon among infants under one year of age; peak rates of viral shedding, ranging from 44% to 100%, were noted for two-year-olds. A longitudinal study at a single center indicated that children usually acquired CMV during their second year of life and usually shed virus for two years or longer. The high prevalence of silent CMV infection among the children in day care argues against the exclusion of any child known to have CMV infection; such children have sometimes been excluded because of the potential risk of CMV transmission to pregnant workers.

This paper examines the labor force implications of increased social investment in the child care industry. We have two main conclusions to report. First, expanding the child care industry will remove a major barrier to employment for a sizable number of women. This includes women in middle and upper income families who desire to work for personal fulfillment and to improve their families' lifestyles. But even more so, it includes women in low-income and single-parent families who need to work to maintain a minimal and dignified standard of living and who might otherwise remain dependent on welfare benefits for their own and their families' subsistence. Second, expanding the child care industry will help employers cope with a range of personnel problems they will increasingly face as the U.S. undergoes a major transition in the 1990's from being a labor surplus economy to being a labor shortage economy.

Immigration and Left Party Government in Europe

Thirty-two White 4- and 5-year-olds from middle-income families responded to hypothetical scenarios in which their mothers and their preschool teachers issued opposing commands. Children were asked what they would do and how they would feel in this situation. All children were interviewed twice—once in their homes and once in their child care centers. All children had attended their current child care settings full day for at least 6 months, and all had teachers who were rated as sensitive and involved. Mothers completed the Attachment Behavior Q-sort, age and length of time in the current teacher's care were related to favoring of the teachers', rather than the mothers', commands in the center interviews. In the center interviews, security scores, age, and length of time in the current teacher's care were related to favoring of teachers' rather than mothers' commands. Conversely, in the home interviews, dependency scores were positively correlated with favoring of mothers' commands over teachers'. The one sex difference indicated that boys found the situation less upsetting than girls did.