On Wednesday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing titled “Solving the Child Care Crisis: Meeting the Needs of Working Families and Child Care Workers” to work on resolving ongoing issues in America’s childcare system, some of which were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the hearing, Carrie Lukas, the president of the Independent Women’s Forum, shared in her testimony in front of the committee that one-size-fits-all government approved childcare centers and policies can hurt Americans’ childcare options more than help. This comes as Democrats have indicated they want more government involvement in childcare centers, which, Lukas explained, would have these centers operate more like public schools.
“Our recent experience with COVID demonstrated why we should reject any public policy change that would make our childcare and preschool systems function more like our K-12 public schools,” Lukas said in her testimony, before diving into the failures of public schools during and after the pandemic (via Independent Women’s Forum):
The failures of our K-12 public schools contrast with the childcare sector. At the height of the pandemic, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, about 60% of childcare centers closed and enrollment fell by about 70%. But many stayed open to serve the children of critical workers. And by the end of 2020, an estimated 73% of daycare, preschool, and childcare programs had opened.
In contrast, at the end of 2020, only about a third of K-12 public schools were providing fully in-person services. Public schools behaved this way because they do not see parents and students as their customers. Why would they? Their ability to pay the bills and keep their jobs depends on pleasing government officials, not serving families. They know that most families are captive consumers; escaping to another school is financially out of reach. Parents should fight to keep this from becoming the situation for our child care and preschool.
In fact, all of the battles we see raging about public K-12 schools—over the content of the curriculum, the use of pronouns and sex ed, how religion is discussed, and masking policies—will come to your local day care and preschool if the government becomes their primary funder and sets the rules for what constitutes an approved daycare provider. We should also expect union-driven disruptions similar to those parents have endured during K-12 teacher strikes and COVID-era school closures.
One example Lukas noted is the HHS’s Head Start Program. In her testimony, Lukas pointed out that these types of programs spearheaded by the federal government provide fewer hours at a higher cost than other daycare programs. And, children in Head Start were required to wear masks after mask mandates were lifted from most schools and other spaces in the aftermath of COVID-19 lockdowns.
Additionally, Lukas shared that several congressionally-mandated studies indicated that Head Start does not show lasting benefits for those who participate. Not to mention, other bipartisan surveys have shown that parents prefer informal daycare settings than formal ones, even if formal care was free and in a convenient location.
“Most parents and Americans simply think that having family or family-like care is best for children,” she explained. “This should caution against imposing proposals like the Child Care for Working Families Act which would heavily incentivize the use of institutional day care—parents’ least preferred option.”
“Government funding for child care is often sold as a surefire way to improve life outcomes for children, particularly from low-income families. However, the evidence simply doesn’t bear this out,” Lukas added. “This doesn’t mean that no study will ever find benefits associated with preschool, nor does it mean that day care and child care aren’t a necessary and important service for millions of children and families. But it should encourage some humility and caution policymakers away from trying to push all children into government-approved childcare centers since it could do more harm than good.”
In an interview with Townhall, Lukas doubled down on her stance, reiterating that the government should, instead of looking at expanding federal provisions regarding childcare, give parents better options for it instead.
“I worry that the direction that some people want to head in is to increase the federal government’s involvement, and really, government’s involvement overall, in what should be family life,” Lukas said. “I think there’s a role for government to support people who need it, but I think it’s really dangerous, the idea of the federal government becoming essentially, expanding the amount of control it has over our childcare and daycare systems, because I think some of the battles we see happening in public schools and some of the failure and concerns we all have about public K-12 schools will be coming to our childcare and preschool centers if we head in that direction.”