Bill for affordable child care in NV, nationwide stalls in D.C.

The Child Care for Working Families Act is stalled in the Republican-controlled Congress. Introduced in April, the bill would increase federal funding to ensure child care would cost no more than $15 a day for families earning the median income, which in Nevada is about $84,000 a year.

Casey Peeks, senior director of early childhood policy at the Center for American Progress, said the bill would also make child care free for extremely low-income families.

“It’s not just tackling the cost of child care but also the supply, so looking at facilities and the workforce,” Peeks explained. “It also has a provision around universal preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds.”

Nevada’s Democratic Rep. Dina Titus and Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto have cosponsored the bill. Republican opposition centers around cost. The bill has not been given a score by the Congressional Budget Office but the two biggest programs, the Child Care and Development Fund and Head Start, each got about $12 billion in funds this fiscal year. The bill would also fund grants to open new child care centers and guarantee higher wages for providers, in order to stabilize and grow the workforce.

Peeks pointed out 72% of Nevadans live in areas known as “child care deserts,” meaning there is a shortage of providers.

“In Nevada, about 65% of children under the age of 6 have all available parents in the workforce,” Peeks noted. “The average annual cost for a four-year-old in center-based child care in Nevada is over $10,000.”

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has threatened to eliminate the Head Start program and tried to withhold funding earlier this year. The U.S. Senate passed a funding bill which would increase the program’s budget but the House version is still a work in progress.

Related: Las Vegas Advocates Call for More Child Care Options