For the past several years Kansas families have suffered from a systemic lack of childcare.
Access to childcare is a problem in both urban and rural areas. 104 of the state’s 105 counties have a higher demand for childcare than availability.
According to Child Care Aware of Kansas, the state has a shortage of approximately 85,000 childcare slots to meet existing demand.
The supply and demand issue raises childcare costs and prices many parents — mostly mothers — out of the workforce.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, childcare is affordable if it costs no more than 7% of a family’s income.
However, in Kansas about 29% of a working mother’s salary is spent on childcare costs alone, making Kansas childcare costs as a percentage of salary one of the highest in the country.
Furthermore, infant care costs in our state exceed the expense of full-time college tuition at a public university, and childcare costs for kids under the age of four are about equal to full-time public university tuition costs.
The state legislature has passed a bill with a proposed “solution” to the childcare crisis. However, the bill essentially just puts a bandaid — and not a very good one — on a firehose.
Currently, Kansas has strict regulations for training, furthering education, licensing, and adult-to-child ratios in the childcare field.
These requirements were put in place to ensure child safety. In 2010, the state legislature passed a law requiring all childcare facilities to be licensed and gave the Kansas Department of Health and Environment the authority to create regulations and requirements for childcare facilities.
Should this bill get the governor’s signature and become law, it would significantly decrease current regulations.
Experts are concerned that such a law would move Kansas away from national standards and best practices. Additionally, the current proposal’s lax policies on continuing education would put many Kansas childcare providers out of compliance with existing requirements to receive federal funding. Should that happen, it could create a scenario where the state has even fewer childcare options than we have right now.
The bill also increases the workload by allowing an additional child per adult without solving the problem that has led to the worker shortage in the first place — exceptionally low wages.
According to the US Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, childcare is one of the lowest paying occupations in the country, oftentimes making only minimum wage.
This bill does not solve that problem.
