We’ve heard a lot of different reasons for Alaska’s workforce problems and ongoing exodus of Alaskans, but one of the common threads through all of it is the sorry state of Alaska’s child care system. High costs, low availability and long wait lists have forced young families to make tough decisions when it comes to working parents.
The House Labor and Commerce Committee held a hearing on the state of the child care system earlier this week, with the takeaway being that child care is not widely available and what’s available is prohibitively expensive. A big issue, the providers pointed out at the hearing, is that the child care business is a tough go. It’s hard to find good employees, pay them enough and charge enough to keep it in business.
Like with education and many other parts of the state in recent years, the greatest of those problems were papered over by an influx of federal covid-19 dollars that provided sizeable grants to providers large and small. Now, most of those grants are expiring and leaving a major question mark over the future of child care.
“To help in the short-term there’s a need for about $30 million,” thread CEO Stephanie Berglund told the committee. “$30 million just for this next year.”
Rep. Dan Saddler, R-Eagle River, asked if there was any sort of ideal child care situation in the past where things were working out well that they should return to.
“I’ve been working at thread for 16 years and I have actually yet to meet a family that has found accessible, affordable quality care that meets their needs,” Berglund replied. “Usually one of those levers is off.”
Berglund, other child care providers and even some sympathetic legislators were open that the solution here is government subsidies because paying for good, qualified staff would require charging rates that are so high that few families could realistically afford the service. Rep. Zack Fields, D-Anchorage, has proposed legislation that would allow child care providers to work together effectively as a union to help direct available child care funds to the widest benefit.
“My question is is high quality, affordable child care a unicorn?” Saddler responded. “Something to strive for but to never achieve? Or is there some place where it’s being achieved?”
“Yes, there is opportunity for us to achieve that,” Berglund replied. “There are many other state models and other opportunities for us to look at. We’re happy to provide some more concrete solutions. I think it’s really a conversation around which levers to pull. If it’s for the workforce, if it’s for the small child care businesses, if it’s more for helping to decrease costs for families. There’s lots of opportunities for a myriad of solutions.”
Saddler turned to the cost of the situation, asking, “Who should be responsible for providing child care? Ultimately, who should pay for child care?”
“We believe it’s the responsibility of all of us. Right now, I mentioned families are shouldering that burden,” Berglund replied. “We know there needs to be more investment at the federal, state and local level, but we also know that we can partner with philanthropy partners and businesses to be more engaged to support their employees as well.”
“All of us? And who is us?” Saddler replied.
“All of us in the state have a responsibility for our youngest Alaskans to support a thriving economy,” Berglund replied.
Why it matters: The accessibility and affordability of child care has been a significant and ongoing issue, which has been exacerbated by the covid-19 pandemic. It’s frequently cited as one of the significant issues hampering the state’s economic recovery as many families are finding it makes more financial sense for a parent to stay home rather than deal with the struggles of finding good child care. And even families that find child care are often met with additional struggles, like inconsistent availability that still requires families to juggle work and child care.
Many have pointed out that improving accessibility to child care would make things far better for young working families and, thus, be better for the overall economy and, thus, better for the state. When Saddler asks “Who should pay?” it’s a narrow look at a situation when the answer to “Who benefits” is everyone.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
