Covering child care costs for daycare workers could fix Nebraska’s provider shortage, senator says
LINCOLN, Neb.– Nebraska wants to follow in Kentucky’s footsteps by implementing a program that will cover child care costs for child care workers. The idea, presented Friday by Omaha Sen. John Fredrickson to the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee, is that the benefit will draw more workers into the child care sector, which is facing serious shortages across the country.
Nebraska’s bill would cover 100% of child care costs for child care professionals with young children if they work at least 20 hours per week for a licensed child care provider, regardless of family income.
The idea is showing success in Kentucky, which passed its grant program in 2022, Fredrickson said. By November 2023, an additional 3,200 child care providers had joined the state in Kentucky, caring for 5,700 more children than the year before, according to the child advocacy group Kentucky Youth Advocates.
If Nebraska were to see a proportionate effect, the bill would add 2,175 new child care workers caring for an additional 3,535 children, Fredrickson said.
Nebraska is one of the latest states to pursue or have passed similar legislation. That includes Iowa, which passed a similar bill last year. Colorado and Indiana have also introduced child care subsidy bills for providers.
“That makes it even more urgent that we create this program now,” Fredrickson said. “Nebraska has the opportunity to become a leader in our country in solving the child care shortages, and in turn, the concerns of our workforce.”
Like other states, Nebraska’s child care sector has shrunk in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 91% of Nebraska’s 93 counties do not have enough child care spaces to meet demand, and at least 10 counties have no child care provider at all, according to a recent survey commissioned by Nebraska Extension and We Care for Kids. An estimated 28% of all children in Nebraska live in so-called child care deserts, defined as U.S. Census tracts — averaging about 4,000 people — where there are either no child care providers or three times as many children as child care slots available.
“In that survey, 34% of parents with children age 5 and younger reported turning down a job because it would increase their child care expenses,” said Anahi Salazar, policy coordinator at Voices for Children.
Salazar, who attended Friday’s hearing with her six-month-old son, said she would have been among those pushed out of the workforce if her employer had not allowed her to take her baby to work. That’s because the child care she had arranged for him before his birth fell through and the only other child care providers within driving distance waited almost a year for an open spot.
“If I were still a teacher, I would have been fired or had to resign,” Salazar said.
The Nebraska program, as proposed, will cost an estimated $21 million. Fredrickson said the costs are dwarfed by the estimated $498 million that Nebraska families lose annually due to lost job opportunities due to a lack of access to child care.
“It is not possible to address the child care challenges in this state without significant investment,” Fredrickson said.
Eight people testified in favor of the program on Friday and another 70 letters of support were sent to the committee. No one testified against it and only one objection letter was sent to the committee.