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The Daily Agenda: A fragmented child care landscape

 

SAMANTHA CALLICUTT, CAITLIN SCHMIDT, AND CURT PRENDERGAST | Tucson Agenda, Aug 19, 2024

 

They say raising a child takes a village, and many parents are intimately familiar with the maneuvering it takes to find reliable and affordable child care.

 

Pima County officials said last month that Arizona is losing $4.7 billion each year because of insufficient child care, with more than half the state living in a child care desert. And nationwide, the cost of care for two children exceeds the national monthly average rent payment.

 

The county surveyed its employees about their child care needs and experiences earlier this year, gathering feedback from 1,400 members of its workforce. Nearly 80% of people who took the survey said affordability is the biggest problem they face in finding child care, and more than 50% said finding high-quality care is also a challenge.

 

These aren’t new complaints, but as the cost of living continues to rise, they’re complaints employers need to address, County Administrator Jan Lesher wrote in a July memo.

 

“These economic considerations provide an economically fragmented landscape for parents, at best, and are financially debilitating, at worst,” she said.

 

The county has created six action items to explore future and potential benefits to increase its employees' access to affordable, high-quality child care. These include:

 

  1. Create a child care review and implementation team to explore options prioritized by employees and steps the county can take to implement short- and long-term strategies.
  2. Review the possibility of increasing flexibility in scheduling.
  3. Explore partnership options with other private or public sector employers.
  4. Advocate for legislative reform.
  5. Assess the potential for onsite child care.
  6. Consider providing financial assistance to eligible employees.

 

The plan would help county employees and also further the goals of the Prosperity Initiative, designed to reduce generational poverty and improve opportunity in the region, Lesher said.

 

“That report and numerous other local, state and national reports and publications make it clear that Pima County – and all employers – must investigate how best to support working parents in a fragmented childcare landscape,” Lesher said.

 

For local parents struggling to afford child care, these types of employer-backed efforts are welcomed.

 

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