Bloomberg: How to Fix Crumbling Child Care Infrastructure
April 25, 2023 Recently, President Biden signed an order that would address two main issues in the child care industry–low wages for employees and unaffordability for parents–but didn’t address issues relating to infrastructure. Most child care programs are unable to generate enough profit to pay for the maintenance of their facilities. This means that wages have to be low and tuition must be high for programs to stay afloat, and that facilities are unable to be kept at healthy standards. Exposed wires and other neglected infrastructure in child care programs result in high staff turnover. Many owners find difficulty in obtaining permits and figuring out zoning ordinances, so many give up which causes child care shortages that hurt families. The article argues that these problems can be attested to the fact that on a federal level, child care isn’t treated as infrastructure in the U.S. so funding is left in the hands of the private sector. Many cities have been trying to repair this as part of their pandemic recovery plans; NYC recently released a plan to replace empty offices in downtown Manhattan with housing and onsite childcare to attract people to the area, give tax abatements and credits to incentive building daycare facilities, and revised codes to allow for programs to be located in basements and tall office spaces. For many years, San Francisco has allowed developers who include daycares to build denser or higher than what is allowed and require those who do not to put money into a city fund for daycares. Hawaii, Denver, and Seattle are also attempting to revamp their child care infrastructure by creating incentives for developers and providers. Many states also recognize that it is important to renovate and improve existing facilities as well as create new ones, and that new laws are essential in reducing burdens like permit fees and business licenses for child care developers and providers.