New York can save by investing in child care: Editorial

We embrace the state's Legislative Women's Caucus and its strong advocacy on issues of concern to women and families, including the need for real investment in quality child care. But will the state actually spend anywhere near what's needed to ensure early childhood care that could save tons of money down the road?

In December, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation, promoted by the Women's Caucus, to create a task force charged with getting a handle on the need for child care statewide, the availability of child care and what it will take to improve New York's sorry, fractured "system" for assisting working-poor families.

Finding and paying for decent child care is a challenge for many middle-class New Yorkers, but can be the make-it-or-break-it factor for working-poor parents trying to hold onto jobs and keep their families together. 

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The state provides child-care subsidies for more than 200,000 children a year. But only the poorest working families are eligible — and fewer than 20 percent of eligible families actually get the subsidies. The subsidies are administered by counties on what is essentially a first-come, first-served basis. "There is no culture in New York of making sure that families that need child care the most will get it," said Ruth Goodman, a social worker at the Mount Kisco Child Care Center, one of six child-care advocates who met with the Editorial Board to explain New York's child-care maze.

Many eligible families don't even know about the subsidies. For those who do apply, the system seems designed to frustrate families that need it most. Parents must be working and have a child-care provider lined up before they can apply for a subsidy — even though many need that subsidy to afford the day care, which helps them be able to hold down a job. 

The soon-to-be-appointed New York State Child Availability Task Force has a great opportunity to redesign the entire subsidy program with clear and sensible eligibility rules, plus statewide standards for obvious needs like communication and waiting lists.

The bigger question, of course, is how many families should be eligible for state-subsidized child care.

Consider this: In Westchester and Rockland counties, a single parent with two children can earn no more than $40,840 to be eligible for a subsidy. But the average annual cost for infant care at a licensed program in the Lower Hudson Valley is about $20,000. That single parent cannot possibly afford child care for one child, let alone two.

With such strict eligibility standards, and far too few dollars available to meet even the needs of those families that are eligible, Westchester's 750 licensed child-care centers and Rockland's 320 centers are regularly facing mothers and fathers in dire straits. "I am constantly counseling low-income working parents who cannot keep up with their invoices," said Andrea Bogin, director of Campus Fun and Learn, a licensed center on the campus of Rockland Community College.

Many day-care centers are unable to turn desperate parents away and enroll their children at huge financial losses, leaving many centers in an ongoing state of budgetary crisis.

Many middle-class parents, and perhaps some working-class parents, may ask why the state should subsidize child care for some when they found a way — perhaps by shuffling children among relatives or relying on unlicensed babysitters to make due. Advocates, who know the working poor and their struggles, offer a convincing argument: relatively small state subsidies today will reduce the need for much larger public programs down the line.

Young children in poverty often develop academic, social and medical challenges that (low paid) child-care workers are trained to identify. Children up to 3 years of age are eligible for a range of federally funded interventions and therapies that can greatly reduce the likelihood of children winding up in expensive special-education programs in public school. And greater social and academic success in school will lead to better outcomes, and less government intervention, through the stages of life.

So there's a lot at stake. And yet, New York State spends a ton on K-12 education and higher education, but a comparative pittance on child care and early education.

The state spent $593 million last year on child-care subsidies for the working poor, but cut that amount by $7 million this year. That led to the Legislative Women's Caucus taking a stand and beginning to enlist the support of women statewide. Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee, D-Suffern, took a leading role as chair of the Assembly Committee on Children and Families, sponsoring legislation to produce the new task force on child care. "We do have a crisis," Jaffee told the Editorial Board. Also attending the meeting were: Jane Brown, executive director of Child Care Resources of Rockland; Kathy Halas, executive director of the Child Care Council of Westchester; and Assemblywoman Shelley Mayer, D-Yonkers.

Cuomo proposed a $7 million increase in funding for next year to make up for this year's cuts. But advocates are asking for a $100 million bump to make child-care a reality for many more. New York needs a real handle on the child-care need statewide in order to determine appropriate spending. That's why the task force is so important.

An assertive Legislative Women's Caucus is a welcome development in a state capitol too long dominated by men.