During World War II, the federal government provided child care around the clock to enable more women to work in the war industries. In 1971, we came close to having a national child care program when President Richard Nixon vetoed legislation that had strong bi-partisan support. Now, as Congress prepares to vote on President Biden’s key legislation, the nation is presented with another opportunity to make a historic investment in our future.
While the bill faces opposition from members of Congress concerned over rising inflation and the federal debt, these concerns are unfounded and politically motivated. Notably, no such fears were expressed when the military budget was increased yet again in September, by $25 billion —nearly forty percent more than the $18 billion in average annual spending for universal preschool proposed in the Build Back Better Act.
Current inflation is not being fueled by government spending, but by supply chain issues, as consumer spending shifted from services to goods due to the pandemic, and also by the increasing monopoly power of highly profitable, large corporations with few competitors that might undercut their prices. Ultimately, we can rely on the Federal Reserve to take stronger action to hold back future price increases, should inflation linger.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is far behind other affluent – and even less affluent – nations, in the support it provides families with children. In 2017, the U.S. was 37th of the 38 OECD countries in its spending on family benefits including child care, at less than two-thirds of one percent of GDP. Only Turkey trailed us. Even Britain, a lot like us in many ways, spends more than five times as much as the U.S.
Yet the economic case for investing in early childhood education and care is strong and well-known, based on decades of evidence. Universal preschool is a two-generation, anti-poverty strategy that also benefits the middle class. It reduces inequality by gender, race, ethnicity and income. Children from families with lower incomes gain the most, but all children make gains, and universal programs are more sustainable than even the best programs designed only for impoverished children, enjoying much more political support. After fifty years, Head Start is still so underfunded that it too often provides preschool on a part-time and part-year basis, and for only a fraction of the children eligible because their families’ incomes fall below the federal poverty line.