We Need Child Care, Not Partisan Threats

I’m a kindergarten teacher in St. Paul, Minnesota, working hard and contributing to the diverse community I love. But with two children, it’s hard getting by in this precarious time — now exacerbated by terror in our streets.

Even before internet personalities drummed up a race-baiting controversy over child care centers, finding quality, affordable child care was difficult. I visited many centers and applied for assistance through Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), which is funded by the federal government. Despite being eligible, I was repeatedly denied.

Tuition was out of reach — and so was financial assistance.

This is part and parcel of our country’s affordability crisis. The costs of child care, health care, adequate nutrition, and other basic needs just keep growing, but struggling families frequently fail to qualify for public programs because of red tape or other requirements to make sure recipients are “poor enough.”

But if we can’t afford these necessities, what difference does it make?

Nationally, child care costs exceed public college tuition in 38 states, according to the Economic Policy Institute. In Minnesota, it costs $23,000 annually for infants and nearly $18,000 for preschoolers, making it the third most expensive state for child care. I’d have to make twice my current salary to make ends meet, yet most safety net services are unavailable to me.

Thankfully, after my case was transferred to a new county worker, I was eventually approved for  CCAP and got my child into a good center. I was so grateful and relieved. But the relief didn’t last.

A few weeks ago, I was playing board games with my kids on the living room floor when I got an email that shocked me. President Trump had frozen federal funding — including my son’s funding — to child care centers in Minnesota.

A deceptive, politically motivated YouTube video went viral alleging benefit fraud in Minnesota’s child care system. The video’s specific claims have since been debunked, but Trump still froze federal child care and family assistance funding for Minnesota and four other states — including California, Colorado, Illinois, and New York — and launched a vicious assault on Minnesota’s immigrant communities.

We all want our tax dollars to be used responsibly, and real fraud in public programs should be rooted out. But punishing families like mine in partisan battles like these is cruel, collective punishment. What’s most important is that eligible families receive their benefits.

How would I pay my son’s tuition, I wondered? Would they kick him out tomorrow? What about my job? Would I lose our apartment? It was overwhelming — and I know parents across all five states were feeling the same.

Soon after, a federal judge ordered the funds released pending further investigation. I can breathe a little easier for now, but I still worry about what comes next.

Child care funding in the U.S. has long been insufficient for the need. Apparently, conservatives want people to work more hours, but don’t want them to have child care. They want people to have more babies, but they refuse to fund the necessary support for families.

Instead, they’ve been taking money from programs that support families, like Medicaid and SNAP, and shoveling it into tax cuts for the wealthy and into entities like ICE, which is wreaking havoc in our streets.

We should prioritize supporting families and children by providing safe, high-quality, and free early childhood education and child care, as New Mexico has done. Then our children can get the best start in life — and parents can go to work.

This piece was originally published on our sister site OtherWords.