COMMENTARY:
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has chosen a worthy goal for her final legislative session in office: making New Mexico the first state in the nation to offer free child care to every family.
Our nation has never really adjusted to the shift from the traditional parenting model that I grew up with, where one parent, usually the father, was able to earn enough money to allow the other to stay home and care for the children.
Governments in other wealthy nations spend an average of about $14,000 per year in child care for each child, according to the New York Times. In the United States, it’s about $500.
That has resulted in a child care industry where workers are underpaid, services are scarce and low-income families are priced out. The average salary for child care providers is $16.63 an hour, according to the Website Indeed.
New Mexico is already well ahead of the rest of the nation, offering care to all of those making up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or $128,600 a year. And with good reason. Every year the annual Kids Count national survey is released showing that we rank either last of next-to-last in childhood wellbeing. Nobody can deny the need to invest more in our state’s children.
The only change will be removing the income restriction and making services available to all children.
Promising services to all children in the state is not the same as delivering those services. And right now, we are clearly not prepared to make good on that promise. There are currently only enough openings for about one out of every three babies under the age of 2, according to a report by the Legislative Finance Committee. And of course, the problem is always worse in the rural parts of the state.
The governor’s plan will potentially add another 12,000 children to a system that is already overburdened. She is seeking an additional $20 million that will allow the state to pay incentives to child care centers that agree to pay staff at least $18 an hour and stay open at least 10 hours a day.
I support all of that. But, it is worth noting that we are about to make a massive new investment in child care centers at the same time that the state of Minnesota is wrestling with a massive fraud involving child care centers.
It’s frustrating to me that the government must always try to find free-market solutions to every problem. Services that are needed by all - such as child care and health care - simply don’t fit into the free market model. Parents working low-wage jobs can’t afford to pay what a child center owner legitimately needs to charge in order to stay afloat. And so, the government offers subsidies to make up the difference.
At least with child care the money isn’t going to huge corporations, like it does with health care,
The governor is looking to make a big splash in her final session. It doesn’t seem likely that the Legislature will give in to her demands on public safety laws. And, I don’t know if needed health care reform to retain doctors gets passed in a 30-day session.
Being the first in the nation to provide universal child care is just another step in a long journey to improve the lives of New Mexico children. But, it’s nice to be first in something instead of always being last.
Walter Rubel can be reached at waltrubel@gmail.com.
Walt Rubel's opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of KRWG Public Media or NMSU.