I was a single mother
When I was a single mother, I had a little money saved to stay home with him for a few months. I was more fortunate than most single mothers because I had that small stash. Until I spent it all. Babies are expensive.
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ECECD has developed resources for Universal Child Care, including fact sheets, a family-focused flyer, and a communications toolkit in English and Spanish. Image from Press Release
When he was nine months old, I had to work. I worked two jobs, one of which started at 11:00 a.m. and one which started at 2:30 p.m. and ended at 9:30 p.m.
Fortunately, I found a day care in a hospital close to both jobs. They stayed open until midnight.
For several months, I picked up my sleeping child, who was so big at age three, his feet hit my knees as I carried him out to drive him home. He usually woke up in the car. We would look at the moon and stars, and I sang Moon songs to him. On Fridays, I let him stay up and we had pizza and movie nights. Sweet memories.
I had to work both jobs, though, so one of them would pay for child care. It’s even worse for parents today. A single parent can spend up to a third of their salary for childcare.
Today when both parents work, most of one of their salaries goes to pay for child care. Yet, if that parent stayed home, the income lost means not being able to pay all the bills. It’s Catch-22.
New Mexico looked at these issues and decided to do something
“New Mexico will become the first state in the nation to offer no-cost universal child care starting November 1, extending access to families regardless of income and saving families an average of $12,000 per child each year. This historic investment strengthens family stability, supports the workforce, and positions New Mexico as a national model for building a sustainable, high-quality early learning system.”
Announcing the program, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said,
“Child care is essential to family stability, workforce participation, and New Mexico’s future prosperity. By investing in universal child care, we are giving families financial relief, supporting our economy, and ensuring that every child has the opportunity to grow and thrive.”
Universal child care in New Mexico will ease financial burdens on working families. Saving $12,000 a year would have been life changing for me and my son. At the least, I could have put that money away to pay for college.
The Universal Child Care Act also provides higher pay to daycare workers, an issue which has kept the most qualified workers out of the business of childcare.
“Child care assistance program funds go directly to child care providers, not parents,” said New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky.
How New Mexico will pay for Universal Child Care
According to USA Today “New Mexico started planning for universal no-cost child care in 2019, when the state founded the Early Childhood Education and Care Department. In 2020, Lujan Grisham created the Early Childhood Education and Care Fund with $320 million from surplus oil and gas revenues and federal mineral leasing. The hope was for that fund to grow to $1 billion in 10 years, Groginsky said. The fund already has almost $10 billion.”
I originally came from Texas, and raised my son there. If New Mexico can use surplus oil and gas revenues, and federal mineral leasing, to fund universal child care, I’m certain Texas could as well. Texas’ economy is built on oil and gas.
The federal government funded universal child care before, and could do it again. During World War II, the government, needing more factory workers while men served in the military, subsidized child care to encourage mothers to join the work force. True to our culture, after the war women were encouraged to return home, and subsidized child care was ended in 1946.
When USA Today reached out to the White House for comment about New Mexico’s universal child care and if the Administration would follow suit, their calls were not returned.
No surprise. With all their squawking about socialism, this administration is unlikely to institute universal child care.
Congress is stalled now over continuing healthcare subsidies which allow many families to have health insurance, while also cutting food stamps and defunding school lunch programs. The ones keeping the government shut down rather than extend healthcare subsidies clearly don’t care about our nation’s children.
Frederick Douglas said, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
We can feed our children, invest in universal child care and subsidized healthcare insurance now, or spend billions repairing adults who were once broken children.
I’m one of those people working with broken adults. I’ve also worked with hungry, ill children. Read more below.
America Claims to Care About Children, but Really Doesn’t
Americans claim to love and protect children, but that’s not true
The U.S. Claims to Care About Children While Depriving Them of Food
America claims to protect children, but it’s not true
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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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