By Kate Santaliz -
NBC News
As the country faces a decline in the number of child care workers and rising child care costs, a bipartisan duo of senators are taking steps to address the shortage that are specifically aimed at helping members of the armed forces who face unique challenges trying to access reliable child care.
The senator. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, will introduce the Expanding Child Care for Military Families Act on Thursday, which proposes a pilot program, the first of its kind led by the Department of Defense, to help child care providers near military installations train, recruit and retain staff.
The goal would be to increase the availability of childcare facilities
, for both military and civilians, increasing workforce development opportunities for workers in the sector, by utilizing existing resources from the Department of Defense.
“We have a manpower shortage and when people look at the challenges of family life in the military, childcare is one of them. That deters people from joining the armed forces. Anything we can do to solve this problem is very important,” Shaheen said in an interview on Wednesday.
The law would allow the Department of Defense to partner with public and private child care centers located on or near military installations, and would require it to participate in recruitment and retention programs at participating centers.
Ernst, the first female combat veteran in the Senate, said the legislation is personal for her. “As a mother and new grandmother, I know that it takes a village to raise a child and that our military needs child care that is high quality and affordable,” she said. “By boosting training and recruiting efforts, this bipartisan bill will ensure that children of military families are safe and loved while their parents train and prepare to protect our nation.”
To further ease the worker shortage, the bill would also allow the Pentagon to work with AmeriCorps, a government agency, to place its volunteers in child care facilities participating in the initiative, and would encourage the Pentagon to train and recruit military spouses to join that industry.
“That's one of the biggest challenges right now,” Shaheen said of the staffing shortage. “One of the reasons it is such a challenge is because the pay scale for daycare teachers is very low, and often people are not provided benefits either. So I think we have to think about all the ways we can be creative to figure out how to get more staff in this field.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic,
the federal government spent $24 billion to help keep child care centers afloat
, but the funding expired in September, leaving many providers who relied on it without the resources to make ends meet.
According to a recent survey by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, more than half of child care center directors and operators reported staffing shortages.
Cora Hoppe, director of the Rochester Child Care Center, a nonprofit center in New Hampshire that would partner with the Department of Defense if the new bill passes, explained that the shortage of providers
is especially felt among families of Members of the armed forces
, who have to deal with frequent moves that pose a number of unique challenges for parents.
“It may be more difficult for armed service members because of how far [these centers] may be from a base or if they don't exist at all,” Hoppe said in an interview Tuesday. “It's an extremely important partnership, because when you're facing uncertainty in all parts [of your life], it's good to have a backup to support you.”
The Rochester Child Care Center serves five to 10 military families and receives military subsidies to help with expenses, but Hoppe said budget constraints and high operating costs recently caused him to have to lay off a quarter of his staff. staff.
“There is no room for maneuver, absolutely none. I'm in class constantly. I have workers who call me because they have sick children. Everything is overwhelmed,” she explained.
Hoppe said that if he had access to additional resources from the Department of Defense, he would have been able to keep his staff.
“The support of the Department of Defense would be enormous, because it would allow us to increase our capacity,” he stressed.
“Right now, we're all [separated] like in silos. Having a Department of Defense program would bring the sector closer together. “It would give us opportunities to work more together to collaborate in supporting these families.”
Shaheen, who has pushed for several measures to ease the burden on both parents and child care centers, explained that she will continue to advocate for more accessible and affordable child care.
“We have to be flexible in thinking about how we respond to families' child care needs. We have to offer options.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution
, and I think this is especially true for military families,” she stated.
“I think there is no magic, miraculous answer, so we have to consider a whole series of things. So this kind of pilot program would be really helpful,” he said.