Alaska child care advocates urge the Legislature to keep $14M in budget for sector in crisis

Yahoo

04-05-2025

May 4—JUNEAU — Child care advocates are urging the Alaska Legislature to include at least $14 million in this year's budget to help stabilize a sector in crisis.
Last month, the House passed its version of the operating budget with $7.7 million in grants for child care providers and $6.1 million in child care subsidies for families. The Senate's current draft budget does not include the same appropriations, which has led advocates to call for that funding to be included.
Low wages, long waiting lists and high tuition costs have long plagued Alaska's child care sector. One-quarter of all child care providers in Alaska have closed their doors in the past three years, according to thread Alaska, an advocacy organization.
For the past two years, the Legislature has approved $7.5 million in subsidies for child care providers to help with wages and operational costs. But the state's dire fiscal outlook has made lawmakers look critically at all spending.
"The problem is we don't have money," Anchorage Republican Sen. Cathy Giessel said at a Tuesday media conference.
Giessel, who is a supporter of child care subsidies, said advocates should not give up hope. Child care funding could be part of negotiations as the budget advances through the legislative process, she suggested.
After both the House and Senate pass their versions of an operating budget, a conference committee typically hammers out differences between the two bills. That way the same budget bill can pass through both chambers.
Anchorage Democratic Rep. Zack Fields said it would be "indefensible" for the Legislature to not approve child care subsidies again this year. He said providers need stability.
"We can't expect a stable sector if we're cutting funding," he said.
Bright Beginnings, once one of the state's largest child care providers, shuttered its last location in Anchorage in late April. Stephanie Berglund, CEO of thread Alaska, told lawmakers last month that 125 families would lose care. Across the state, she said there is a gap of over 23,000 children who lack access to child care.
On Tuesday, dozens of Juneau residents rallied on the state Capitol steps in support of child care and early education funding.
Blue Shibler, executive director of the Southeast Alaska Association for the Education of Young Children, was at Tuesday's rally. She said that programs are shutting down and that Alaska's child care system "is on the verge of collapse."
Shibler said that child care subsidies should be permanently included in the state's baseline budget. Like school administrators, Shibler said that one-time funding from the state is unreliable and has limited utility for providers.
"It's more like trying to seal a crack in the foundational distress that they're all in," she said. "So it may have sealed one crack, but there are other cracks that are growing bigger and bigger."
In 2023, Gov. Mike Dunleavy established a child care task force to study how to improve the affordability, availability and quality of child care in Alaska. The task force concluded its work late last year and made 56 recommendations. Those include subsidies for families and help for providers to navigate a complex bureaucratic process.
Legislators last year approved Senate Bill 189, which included new state tax credits for certain corporations that contribute to child care or offer their employees child care, alongside an increase to state assistance payments for families.
The Alaska Department of Health had estimated that an additional 18,000 Alaska kids under 12 would meet the new criteria for assistance.
The Alaska Chamber of Commerce has supported state help for child care to assist the workforce. A 2021 analysis found Alaska was losing $165 million per year in economic activity due to lack of affordable and accessible child care.
Kati Capozzi, president and CEO of the Alaska Chamber of Commerce, told lawmakers in April that a recent statewide survey found that 24% of parents missed work due to lack of access to child care; also, 13% of parents chose not to work at all due to lack of affordability or accessibility. That represented an increase from the chamber's 2024 survey, Capozzi said.
But SB 189 has since faced a legal challenge after lawmakers combined the measure with several other bills. Wasilla Republican former Rep. David Eastman sued the state in November, arguing that the combined bill violated the Alaska Constitution's "single-subject rule," which requires that provisions adopted in a single bill all relate to one topic.
The lawsuit is still ongoing. The Legislature's attorneys have said if lawmakers pass the same bills as last year, Eastman's lawsuit could be nullified. This year, legislators have introduced a child care tax credits bill, and a measure that would provide assistance payments for families.
Both child care bills have advanced to the Senate floor for a final vote in that legislative chamber.
With fewer than three weeks left in the regular legislative session. Anchorage Democratic Sen. Forrest Dunbar said it would be "a race against the clock" to pass those bills. On Friday, Dunbar said he was hopeful that they would be approved this year.