WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) spoke on Tuesday at a U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing about the importance of child care and preschool for working families. Murphy explained how the lack of affordable child care hurts both families and employers, and highlighted the barriers families face and sacrifices they often make to find child care during the summer. Last week, child care workers held rallies across Connecticut calling for increased funding.

“When I'm in Connecticut, especially as the parent of two school-aged kids myself, I know that nothing causes parents to tear their hair out more than dealing with the increasingly unaffordable cost of child care and the relative unavailability of quality child care options today,” Murphy said.

On the impact of childcare on the labor force, Murphy said: “In Connecticut, we have a lot of major companies that have you know, frankly, asked the state legislature for a big public sector commitment to child care. Just a handful of them that have testified recently in Connecticut: Bigelow Tea, General Dynamics, Electric Boat, Boehringer, Hartford Healthcare. 124,000 parents of young kids in Connecticut said in a recent survey that…their work has been disrupted by child care issues. And employers see this too — their inability to recruit good talent because of the lack of availability of childcare.”

Murphy added: “I remember meeting one young woman, a parent of two, who was out of the workforce simply because she couldn't find care for her youngest child. And of course, that story can be replicated literally millions of times over. People who are out of the workforce, for one reason only — because they can't find child care. That hurts them, but it also hurts employers too.”

On finding childcare during the summer, Murphy said: “I've spent a lot of time on this committee talking about the importance of good summer programming for kids. I thought it would have been a mistake to just send kids back to summer school last year. I thought that they needed a little bit more sort of holistic and comprehensive care. But parents will tell you that summer is the nightmare, and the amount of time and energy they spend trying to get their kids in good care and the amount of income that they forgo during the summer is really extraordinary. A recent survey suggested that 57% of families said that at least one parent made a sacrifice during the summer to care for kids that involved a reduction of income. That's catastrophic for families that are living paycheck to paycheck.”

Last year, Murphy authored an op-ed in Hearst CT to make the case for funding for summer enrichment programs.

You can read Murphy’s full exchange with Julie Kashen, Director of Women’s Economic Justice and Senior Fellow at the Century Foundation, and Rhian Evans Allvin, Chief Executive Officer of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC):

MURPHY: “Thank you very much, Madam Chair. This is as important a hearing as we're going to have. When I'm in Connecticut, especially as the parent of two school-aged kids myself, I know that nothing causes parents to tear their hair out more than dealing with the increasingly unaffordable cost of childcare and the relative unavailability of quality childcare options today.

“We are a family that can afford care for our kids. And yet it frankly takes up hours and hours every week just trying to arrange that care and make sure that it's there.

“So let me just delve into two subjects that I wanted to touch on today. And I thank you all for your tremendous testimony and work in this critical field.

“First, to you Ms. Kashen, I want to talk a little bit about the employers’ perspective on the investment that we are contemplating. In Connecticut, we have a lot of major companies that have you know, frankly, asked to the state legislature for a big public sector commitment to childcare. Just a handful of them that have testified recently in Connecticut: Bigelow Tea, General Dynamics, Electric Boat, Boehringer, Hartford Healthcare.

“124,000 parents of young kids in Connecticut said in a recent survey that, we believe that 124,000 parents have testified, that their work has been disrupted by childcare issues. And employers see this too — their inability to recruit good talent because of the lack of availability of childcare.

“I remember meeting one young woman, a parent of two, who was out of the workforce simply because she couldn't find care for her youngest child. And of course, that story can be replicated literally millions of times over. People who are out of the workforce, for one reason only — because they can't find childcare. That hurts them, but it also hurts employers too. So what's employers’ take on the status of childcare affordability and how it impacts their bottom lines?”

KASHEN: “Senator, that's exactly right. There is a huge push by business leaders to invest, for Congress to invest in childcare. And that's because they know that business disruptions cost a lot of money, you know, childcare related business disruptions.

“The report that I just did with the Center for Economic Policy Research found that across the nation we could gain $60 billion in economic activity by reducing those childcare related business disruptions. So that's a lot of money.

“The other thing is it's just a very personal piece, too. I think about Jessica and Jason Morrison in Pennsylvania, who Jessica works full time they have two kids. Jason has been at home during the day taking care of their kids. And he works for Uber and Lyft at night and on weekends. So basically, they are not really seeing each other. He was offered a great job, he was very excited, the employer was so excited to have him. They could not find or afford childcare. They found waitlists, they found blocks every chance they got, and so he had to say no to that job. And that's what's happening a lot around the country, for dads, for moms who cannot do the work they want to do because they don't have access to affordable childcare. “

MURPHY: “I think it's important to put it in that broader economic context. Second question, wanted to drill down on a particular time of the year that's really tough for parents. So I'll pose this question to Ms. Evans Allvin on behalf of the industry, but I know others could answer as well.

“As Senator Murray knows, I've spent a lot of time on this committee talking about the importance of good summer programming for kids. I thought it would have been a mistake to just send kids back to summer school last year. I thought that they needed a little bit more sort of holistic and comprehensive care.

“But parents will tell you that summer is the nightmare, and the amount of time and energy they spend trying to get their kids in good care and the amount of income that they forgo during the summer is really extraordinary. A recent survey suggested that 57% of families said that at least one parent made a sacrifice during the summer to care for kids that involved a reduction of income.

“That's catastrophic for families that are living paycheck to paycheck. What's the particular barriers that families face during the summer? And how can the proposals that we're considering help?”

EVANS ALLVIN: “Senator, I can tell you from personal experience with three children that the summer is a nightmare, and I get nervous as we every time we start planning for what the activities will be in the summer and how we're going to figure it out and wing it as most families do.

“And that is why the idea of full day, full year care, birth to five is really important. We don't solve this problem with just a part day program or just a small investment. We solve it when it's full day, full year care. And that is the notion of both keeping kids safe while their parents work, which happens in a full year, and maximizing on what we know the science of high quality early childhood education.

“You really look at, Ellen might have mentioned this, but look at also how the field has responded over the last two years with the pandemic. And other than a brief shutdown at the beginning of the pandemic for public health reasons, childcare has largely been open and childcare providers, early childhood educators have made herculean efforts to ensure that children are safe, that it's a safe environment, but still that it's a high quality early learning environment.

“And we've watched that happen. They've done it on shoestring budgets. And it's just, that's not fair. It's not fair. And we send the wrong message to them when we do that.

“I also just want to take a minute to address the question about costs to families. I'm not sure where we're getting the statistics that this is going to increase costs by $13,000 to families. And in fact, it's free for three and four year olds. It’s pre-K that is free for three and four year olds. And what I have seen, the cost estimates that I have seen, goes as far as for a family earning $130,000 a year to drop costs by $13,000. So I just think we need to get clear on kind of the impact that we'll have and make sure that we're aligned on the math that we're using.”

 

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