{"id":4535,"date":"2016-05-17T16:41:30","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T22:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=4535"},"modified":"2016-05-17T16:41:30","modified_gmt":"2016-05-17T22:41:30","slug":"hillary-clinton-proposes-massive-increase-in-the-cost-of-childcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2016\/05\/hillary-clinton-proposes-massive-increase-in-the-cost-of-childcare.html","title":{"rendered":"Hillary Clinton proposes massive increase in the cost of childcare!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3AUS_Navy_050114-N-3659B-050_he_Morale_Welfare_and_Recreation_Child_Development_Center_on_board_Naval_Support_Activity_Mid-South_in_Millington%2C_Tenn.%2C_provides_daycare_services.jpg;<\/p>\n

Affordable healthcare . . .<\/p>\n

Affordable housing . . .<\/p>\n

Affordable tuition . . .<\/p>\n

And now, affordable child care. \u00a0Ever notice how \u201caffordable\u201d now means \u201cgovernment subsidized\u201d?<\/p>\n

Hillary Clinton has now proposed a new government program, the objective of which is to subsidize child care to according to the principle that no family should pay more than 10% of their income for child day care expenses. \u00a0At the same time, this would be paired with a set of incentives for child care centers to raise pay for their workers to the level of kindergarten teachers. \u00a0She did not specify how either of these elements would be funded, or how the government would control pay scales for private workers (perhaps some decree to retain eligibility for government funds such as the lunch program?).<\/p>\n

See reports from the Huffington Post<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Politico<\/a>, and commentary from the Washington Post<\/a> and the Wall Street Journal<\/a> (google search terms RAISE initiative child care).<\/p>\n

And, incidentally, a chart was floating around the other day showing that the cost of child care + university tuition was skyrocketing, but it was rather senseless to combine these two. \u00a0Here\u2019s the CPI data on childcare costs<\/a>, compared to general inflation<\/a>\u00a0(yes, this isn\u2019t the BLS site, but it\u2019s where I landed via google and perfectly suitable for the purpose), and here\u2019s a quick table:<\/p>\n

\"childcare<\/p>\n

Now, clearly, daycare costs are rising at levels greater than general CPI, and that really shouldn\u2019t be a surprise, as expectations for daycare have similarly increased: \u00a0even without government mandates or incentives, parents are looking for \u201chigh quality\u201d programs. \u00a0What\u2019s more, costs are very heavily due to employee wages, so, even though wages have stagnated recently, it\u2019s reasonable for childcare costs to outpace general inflation, since there\u2019s little to be gained in the way of productivity, just a minimal amount of improvement in back-office functions.<\/p>\n

But what would daycare look like if it was massively subsidized by the government?<\/p>\n

A straightforward Obamacare-like subsidy that limits family cost to 10% of salary would, for most families, wholly remove financial incentives from childcare provider decisions.\u00a0 If the feds pay the difference whether you select an in-home daycare or The Goddard School, you\u2019d choose The Goddard School, no?\u00a0 And the number of families whose income is high enough that they\u2019d still be paying full cost in any case is likely a relatively small enough proportion that the families with no cost incentive would spark a rush towards higher fees funding higher salaries, fancier facilities, longer hours, and, of course, higher profits for owners.\u00a0 One could imagine two tiers of childcare, those attended by voucher-families, and those attended by pay-your-own-way families \u2013 but there\u2019s likewise a good chance that it would simply become the norm that everyone pays 10%.\u00a0 (And how\u2019s the 10% determined?\u00a0 Based on only the custodial parent, or adding in both parents\u2019 income?)<\/p>\n

Of course this wouldn\u2019t be sustainable, would it?\u00a0 It\u2019d be like college tuition subsidies, except to a more extreme degree, as it wouldn\u2019t be a matter of just some families shrugging off the cost as covered by income-based loans, but nearly all families doing so.<\/p>\n

So presumably, the feds would establish a maximum reimbursement level. \u00a0Heck, they already do, when it comes to daycare benefits for poor families. \u00a0Here are the rates in Illinois<\/a>: \u00a0$46.49 for up to a twelve hour day for an infant in the Chicago area, lower for other ages and locations. \u00a0That\u2019s $12,000 per year, which seems generous but full-time care at the local Kindercare is now up to $389 per week, or $78 per day, or $20,000 per year. \u00a0(I dug up the tuition rate sheet from 2007 for comparison, which was still tucked away in a folder, and it was $298 then; seems like a huge jump but it\u2019s exactly 3% per year.) \u00a0Do they offer discounts to families on vouchers? \u00a0I don\u2019t know, but, persumably, even if they do so now, they couldn\u2019t possibly do so if everyone was using a voucher.<\/p>\n

Which would mean that \u201cmiddle class\u201d reimbursement levels would have to be set much, much higher, especially if they want to set caregiver pay higher as well. \u00a0How do they determine the right level? \u00a0Perhaps this would effectively mean that daycares would function more like regulated utilities, with permitted reimbursement levels growing as different criteria are met, and with set criteria required for basic eligibility, including not just the existing metrics of caregiver: child ratios and other regulations having to do with health and safety, but requirements regarding payroll levels, staff turnover and credentials, submission of planned curriculum, etc. \u00a0How would they determine the \u201cright\u201d reimbursement level for a center to meet all their metrics and still stay in business? \u00a0That\u2019s the trick, isn\u2019t it? \u00a0Do they go for generous funding, or risk levels low enough that they can\u2019t get enough people to hang up their shingle in the first place?<\/p>\n

But the bottom line would be that daycare costs would be whatever the government decrees them to be, unless the government subsidy buys so little as to be useless.<\/p>\n

And, no matter what, this would mean that home daycares would pretty much disappear, given that the government and NGOs already have it as their stated policy that \u201chigh quality child care\u201d is by definition provided in an institution, where children are separated by age into \u201cclassrooms,\u201d where the days are tightly structured, with reading lessons added in for the 3s and 4s.<\/p>\n

In fact, back in September, I wrote about<\/a> the Center for American Progress\u2019s proposal for a broadly-available \u201chigh quality child care tax credit,\u201d which was intended to move families to institutional daycare. \u00a0The strange thing about this proposal is that it envisioned a total cost of $14,000 per child, much lower than Kindercare\u2019s $20,000, though, to be sure, that was for infant care in a high cost area.<\/p>\n

So, bottom line: \u00a0massive increase in child care cost, paired with massive shift in who pays, from a parental responsibility to make decisions as a family, with assistance for the poor, to another social welfare program.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image: \u00a0https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3AUS_Navy_050114-N-3659B-050_he_Morale_Welfare_and_Recreation_Child_Development_Center_on_board_Naval_Support_Activity_Mid-South_in_Millington%2C_Tenn.%2C_provides_daycare_services.jpg; By U.S. Navy photo by Photographer\u2019s Mate 3rd Class Joseph M. Buliavac [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Affordable healthcare . . . Affordable housing . . . Affordable tuition . . . And now, affordable child care. \u00a0Ever notice how \u201caffordable\u201d now means \u201cgovernment subsidized\u201d? Hillary Clinton has now proposed a new government program, the objective of which is to subsidize child care to according to the principle that no family should […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":4547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[291,73],"class_list":["post-4535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-child-care","tag-childcare"],"yoast_head":"\nHillary Clinton proposes massive increase in the cost of childcare!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Affordable healthcare . . . Affordable housing . . . Affordable tuition . . . 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