Bonnie Albrecht’s path to accessing a government child care assistance program was long (the Texas mother spent nearly two years on a waitlist) and bureaucratic (involving seven pay stubs and countless phone calls). Edythe Smith, who lives in Syracuse, New York, juggled full time work with full time caregiving for her infant daughter from her home while she waited for the aid. Barbara Aranda had to call out from her job in Austin so often that she lost crucial income and had to turn to food pantries to feed her three kids.
The three women have two things in common: All of them spent at least a year on a waitlist for child care subsidies that help mostly low- and moderate-income working families afford sky-high child care costs.
And they are all single mothers.
Single parents have been disproportionately affected by record high waitlists for child care assistance across the country, as I reported this week for Hechinger and The 19th. About 80 percent of subsidy recipients are — like Aranda, Smith, and Albrecht — single parents. Several of these (mostly) mothers told me about missing out not only on work, but promotions and basic financial and food security as a result of the long delays in accessing the assistance.
An already dire situation could become even worse if the Trump administration has its way. The New York Times reported earlier this month that U.S. Vice President JD Vance is pushing for an overhaul of the $12 billion Child Care and Development Block Grant to redirect some of the funds to stay-at-home parents — as long as they are married, that is. To qualify, one spouse would have to work at least 35 hours a week while the other stayed home.
On X, Vance has called universal child care “a massive subsidy to the lifestyle preferences of the affluent over the preferences of the middle and working class,” adding that “normal Americans care more about their families than their jobs, and want a family policy that doesn’t shunt their kids into crap daycare so they can enjoy more ‘freedom’ in the paid labor force.”
But Republicans are hardly unified in their take on what should happen with the nearly 40-year-old child care assistance program. Earlier this year, 40 Republicans in Congress advocated for “robust” funding of the program, although that push was unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, a conservative group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, Advancing American Freedom, has spoken out against Vance’s idea, because it would “punish work” and “expose the sanctity of the family to government intrusion,” among other concerns.
Some experts doubt that Vance’s plan will ever take effect. But the idea is serving as a serious distraction at a time when waitlists continue to grow in many states, leaving countless parents — especially women — shut out of the workforce.
This story about child care subsidies was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.