Stop pretending Utah families can afford childcare

Utah should not let federal funding formulas dictate the level of investment in our children and families. In order to fulfill the House Majority 26 Policy Priority to “continue aligning policy to support marriage and family stability, cut costs for families, and cultivate a culture that encourages and makes it easier to raise children,” Utah must invest state funds to ensure that every child has an equal opportunity to a quality educational foundation that will prepare them to grow, learn, and succeed.

Despite taking pride in being family-friendly, even The New York Times was surprised that Utah leads the country in plummeting fertility rates. Given the unaffordability of raising a family in Utah (the current estimate is that it takes an annual income of $203,943 to afford childcare in Utah), it is not surprising that the Ken C. Gardner Policy Institute predicts that Utah’s fertility rate will continue to decline until it eventually converges with the also-declining national rate.

If we really want Utah to be family friendly, then we must invest in our families. Nothing magical happens when a child turns 5 that makes them worthy of public investment in their care and education. Yet the difference in public investment in care and education before and after the age of 5 is staggering: our government spends approximately $1,985 a year per child for children before kindergarten and $17,592 per year, per child ages 5 through 18.

To make matters worse, Utah plans to cut approximately $21 million from its childcare subsidy program as a result of reduced allocations from the federal Child Care Development Fund (CCDF). Utah’s childcare subsidy program currently serves only about 15% of eligible children (aged 5 and under) and the payments to providers do not cover the cost of high-quality childcare. This reduction in funding comes as Utah families’ demand for this program continues to increase.

Despite this increase in need, inability to serve the majority of eligible families, and failure to cover the true costs of care, without any additional investments from the state, the Department of Workforce Services Office of Childcare has made several recommendations to cut the program this fall. Among other proposed changes, the bulk of the decrease (68.1%) will be made by eliminating families newly applying for childcare subsidies who earn between 50% and 85% of the state median income, representing approximately 26% of applicants to the program. Currently, a three-person household earning $84,012 (85% state AMI) a year is eligible for the program, but the proposed income cap for a three-person household will be reduced to $49,428 (50% state AMI).

Let’s use an example of a family of three (two working parents with their infant child) that makes $50,000 a year. Under the new recommendation, this family would not qualify for any childcare subsidy, meaning they would need to pay $1,901 a month (average cost of high-quality infant care in Utah) or 45% of their total pretax income for a high-quality childcare program. That is simply not possible — the math does not work. Excluding these families from the program means they will not be able to afford high-quality childcare, and may compromise the parents’ ability to be part of the workforce or require the infant to be left in low-quality childcare. 

We can do better by these families and their children. Gov. Spencer Cox and Utah legislators need to know that we can’t just say Utah is family friendly, we have to make investments that actually make Utah family friendly.