Latest news with #UtahChildcareSolutionsandWorkplaceProductivityPlan
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion: Utah, we have a problem
I believe accessible, high-quality child care should be a collective priority, not a source of conflict. Loving children and supporting their families so they can thrive should be non-negotiable. Yet, in Utah, when we raise concerns with lawmakers, we continuously take two steps forward only to take twice as many backward later. Now is the time to demand consistent and meaningful reforms in our child care system. But this time, early childhood educators, families and child care advocates must be at the table. As the saying goes, 'Nothing about us without us.' While legislators have good intentions, historically, their proposed solutions often lack insights from the people directly affected. To create legislation, public officials must understand the complexities of caregiving and its critical role in preparing children for lifelong learning by talking to us and diving into research-based information. We've been fortunate to pique the interest of some lawmakers, but we need them to engage further. Utah still has the highest population of children in the nation, yet we're not funding and supporting them the way we should. We fully support a recent Utah Childcare Solutions and Workplace Productivity Plan, released by the Women in the Economy Subcommittee of the Governor's Unified Economic Opportunity Commission before the legislative session. Solutions include increasing wages for the child care workforce, supporting education models that address child behaviors, making accessibility equitable, investing in programs to make child care affordable and working with employers to expand access. While some families are fortunate enough to enjoy a lifestyle that allows one parent to stay home to care for their child, that's not the reality for most Utah families. Today's society typically requires that both parents contribute financially. To suggest that we shift to single-income households or evoke antiquated ideas without putting systems in place to support them is disingenuous. Working parents are overwhelmed by the cost of child care — if they can find it. In Utah, licensed programs can sufficiently serve only 36% of children under 6. It's more dire in rural communities, where much of the state is deemed a child care desert. It forces parents to miss work, quit their jobs, or leave their children in unsafe or low-quality care. Child care is becoming more costly than college tuition. Due to stringent rules, some parents are ineligible for funding assistance. Meanwhile, child care providers face rising operational costs while trying to offer competitive wages. This, unfortunately, drives families toward unlicensed care, shifting away from the very support systems vital for children's development. It becomes a circular problem. Everyone wants to thrive. Everyone wants to care for children. But without additional funding, the system isn't sustainable. Many child care advocates have been in this field for many years. Some of us have touched all facets of this work, from early childhood teachers and child care center directors to home providers and licensing officials. No matter our roles, we're all being dismissed by policymakers as inconsequential. Although child care educators are essential, they are the lowest-paid workers in Utah — earning about $15 per hour. Pair that with little funding to help mitigate costs and you've got a crisis that affects children's learning and a family's survival. We encourage children's social, emotional and cognitive growth and lifelong academic achievement. We are not babysitters. We are professionals. Our work is critical to the survival of families, the state economy and the nation. That is why we are participating in the annual Day Without Child Care on May 12. It is the perfect opportunity to amplify the urgency of these issues. Early childhood centers, providers and families in Utah are joining us in at least 10 locations across the state. We call upon everyone who cares for and loves children to show up and make their voices heard. As some business owners close their child care centers and parents step away from their jobs, a Day Without Child Care will provide a glimpse into how our economy could be affected by a lack of child care services. According to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce report, Utah's economy loses an annual $1.36 billion in revenue due to a lack of accessible and affordable child care programs. If providers don't work, people can't work. If people don't work, the state can't work. Advocating for an equitable early childhood education system might seem daunting and discouraging. Still, we stand firm and advocate for it vigorously.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Don't use our kids as props for your ‘family-friendly' theater
Students play on the playground at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School in South Salt Lake on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch) Our state leaders love to tell anyone who will listen that Utah is a 'family-friendly' state. We are the youngest state in the nation! We have the biggest families! We love kids! But actions, not words, show whether our leaders truly care about the stability and success of Utah families. Recently, legislative leaders have shown their 'love' of kids by promoting dental decay, eroding public schools, and ostracizing immigrant children. And for another consecutive year, they did not show any love for the tens of thousands of working families statewide who need and deserve relief from Utah's ongoing child care crisis. It's clear that our state leaders don't 'love' the idea of helping children who do (or could) benefit from the early care and learning offered through licensed child care programs. Instead, they have undermined the health and safety of kids in child care settings, made no substantial public investment to help parents afford rising child care costs, and belittled child care professionals with decades of expertise. State leaders' coordinated response to our child care crisis is clear: create the illusion of doing something while actually doing as little as possible. Their strategy certainly crystallized this past legislative session, as the child care bills state leaders allowed to pass contained only superficial efforts to address Utah's very real child care challenges. The governor and Legislature cannot claim ignorance or lack of knowledge. They have all the information they need to meaningfully address the frustration and desperation of working families with young kids. They just can't be bothered to use it. In December, the Women in the Economy Subcommittee of Gov. Spencer Cox's Unified Economic Opportunity Commission released a 'Utah Childcare Solutions and Workplace Productivity Plan.' In appreciation, legislative leaders scrapped the subcommittee altogether. Nonetheless, the plan does exist and could be incredibly helpful. Completed by early care and education experts, it includes current data about our changing demographics, the financial struggles of parents with young children, and the challenges facing the child care workforce. The plan confirms the severity of Utah's child care situation, which local advocates have warned about for years. Most importantly, the plan contains 33 common-sense solutions that have succeeded all over the country. The recommendations are vetted by early childhood experts with decades of expertise and formulated to specifically address Utah's child care challenges … and essentially ignored by the same legislature that paid for the plan. In fact, the erstwhile co-chair of the Women in the Economy Subcommittee — Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, R-Clearfield — admitted to local media that she hadn't even read the plan (but definitely 'intended to' at some point). But why read through an 84-page policy document full of child care solutions, when you know you won't do anything it recommends? Grassroots child care champions are beyond frustrated with politicians who deliver annual performances celebrating the preciousness of hypothetical children, while doing next to nothing to help actual Utah kids. With so much information and expertise available to them, they still refuse to act. Everyday Utahns who care about this issue are willing to do their part. There are plenty of local experts, parents and child care providers, who are highly informed and almost entirely unpaid. Unfortunately, there is no avenue for them to engage in a legitimate problem-solving process with their elected representatives. Imagine being a working parent or child care provider, taking time off from your job to share your personal experience with an issue impacting thousands of families … only to deliver your carefully crafted two-minute testimony to legislators who are staring at their phones or telling unprofessional, insensitive jokes. Or, think about persistently trying to offer your lived experience expertise, for free, only to never be included as a stakeholder when child care legislation is written. Thankfully, state leaders didn't create new challenges for the child care sector this past session. They just did very little to address the existing ones. Once again, they've done just enough to maintain their 'child-friendly' public image while helping as few Utah children as possible. Utah is very lucky to have thousands of caring parents and child care professionals, still willing to do this incredibly meaningful work for little to no pay. But the luck can't — and won't — last, while Utah's kids end up paying dearly for state leaders' hypocrisy.
