Child Care Can Be Free and Universal

I was drawn to the childcare profession because of my love for children. I just love seeing their smiling, hopeful faces, watching them grow and learn, and welcoming the trust and love they bring to us every day.

At the same time, working in this field can be challenging. Babies and young children require a great deal of love and care, informed by expertise in early childhood development. Low pay is challenging for providers, and high costs are challenging for families.

But some states are looking for answers — and I believe mine has found one. New Mexico is now expanding its free, high-quality child care program so that all families can access it. It’s the first of its kind in the nation — and I hope other states will follow.

As of November 1, all families in the state are eligible for universal, no-cost child care. New facilities will be built, existing child care centers can apply for funds to improve their facilities, and child care providers will receive pay boosts.

Prior to this, our no-cost child care was available only to families with incomes up to 400 percent of the poverty line, and there were cost-prohibitive copay structures. This meant that we had to turn away many needy families.

When parents and caretakers can’t get child care, they lose work, educational opportunities, and enrichment opportunities for their kids. Or when families scrape to afford the exorbitant cost of child care, the rest of their budget — such as food, housing, healthcare, and educational expenses — suffers.

The purpose of this new, no-cost, universal child care program is many-fold: to improve early childhood education outcomes; to support parents’ ability to work; to provide child care workers with a livable wage; to increase the number and quality of child care centers; and to reduce the cost burden to families and strengthen communities.

Families will save an average of $12,000 per year with this program. That’s life-changing money for most working families. The universal program is funded by surplus revenues from New Mexico’s oil and gas industry and a portion of the Land Grant Permanent Fund — and the funds are paid directly to child care facilities.

I’ve been a teacher in the child care space for 25 years — and I’ve witnessed firsthand the problems this new program is meant to address.

I feel heartbroken each time we have to turn away a family who is desperate for care but can’t afford it. I see the positive impact our child care programs have on children, including lifelong benefits for their physical and emotional well-being and for their future educational and workforce attainment.

Former students who are now adults regularly reach out to me and thank me for all the care they remember receiving. I’m humbled by each act of thoughtfulness from these now successful adults. Recently, one family for whom I taught all five of their children invited me to be the guest of honor at a graduation for one of the adult children. I can’t put into words how special and appreciated that made me feel.

Child care centers are pillars of the community, providing an excellent start in life for our children, freeing up parents and caretakers to earn a living, and strengthening the economy and well-being of our communities. It’s a travesty that child care is prohibitively expensive — and that child care workers are woefully underpaid in the rest of the country.

Taking care of our children and setting them up for success is the best thing we can do for our families, our communities, and our nation. My hope is that all states will follow New Mexico’s lead and enact a similar, no-cost universal child care program for all families.

This piece was originally published by our sister site Otherwords.org.