Texas restaurant workers are eligible for free child care, and other states should follow suit
The program arrived at a time when child care is becoming exponentially more expensive for parents. One estimate suggests that, with millions of Americans paying an average of $14,000, or as much as 20 percent of their salaries, in child care costs each year. That feels especially untenable in the midst of continuing inflation, as the costs of everything from food to gas to housing also continue to rise.
And truly, a program like this is the least a state like Texas can do. Gov. Greg Abbott and the legislature have almost universally failed their citizens during the pandemic, from lifting mask mandates and reopening businesses against the advice of medical experts, towhen they didn’t want to go back to work in environments that could jeopardize their health.
It shouldn’t have taken a circumstance as devastating as the pandemic to recognize the need for subsidized child care, but amid staffing shortages that persist across the country, it just makes good business sense for governments to step in and support workers in this way. It’s the exact kind of program that the federal government should implement broadly for all parents and not just service industry workers. According to the Brookings Institute,, a tiny fraction of the government’s $6.
We can look to the success of the Advance Child Tax Credit payments that went out to families in 2021 for proof that programs that ease the financial burden of raising children have impacts that are far-reaching. In addition to reducing the number of children living in poverty in the short-term, a worthy goal in and of itself, the policy is expected to have a long-term impact on the social mobility of marginalized families.
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