Kentucky has serious childcare woes. Come help us solve them.
Access to quality childcare remains one of the top challenges facing Kentucky families. The Kentucky General Assembly is working to craft policies that meet the needs of working families, eliminate barriers to work, and create educational opportunities. We have a great deal of ahead of us in the coming months, but have spent the first meetings assessing the situation.
So just how bad is this crisis? Kentucky has faced issues with access to quality childcare for some time, but the situation has gotten worse over the last few years. An unprecedented 9% of childcare providers closed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, reducing statewide availability by almost 7,000 slots. At maximum capacity, there are only 158,264 spots statewide today. Consider that Kentucky roughly has 266,054 children under the age of five. Of course, capacity does not equal availability.
As a result, half of Kentucky households live in what experts call a childcare desert, where demand far outweighs availability. Many centers remain scaled down due to staffing shortages — leaving classrooms closed and centers operating well under their maximum amount of children — as a result. Scarcity of workers in the childcare sector is a product of several contributing factors, from low revenues and wages to a lack of career pathways for early childhood educators. Competitive compensation is also stifled by high-fixed and operating costs. The median wage for workers is just over $13 an hour, while the median annual income for center directors sits at a lowly $31,828.
Along with accessing high-quality childcare, families with school-age children face additional challenges like covering the significant cost that comes with it. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, 60% of families nationwide cannot afford the childcare they need. Currently in Kentucky, the average annual cost of childcare for an infant is anywhere from $6,300 to $11,300. To address the issue, many parents are leaving the workplace. According to the U.S. Labor Department, women’s jobs made up 88% of those lost since the pandemic and lack of childcare represents the largest barrier for mothers.
Financial assistance is available to bridge the gap and Kentucky receives approximately $95 million in federal dollars each year. A significant portion of the funds go towards helping low-income families through the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP). However, only 15% of childcare slots take advantage of subsidized assistance.
This is hindering Kentucky from economic growth and success. While our state hit an all-time low unemployment rate this summer, almost 45% of those who could be working are not and lack of childcare is a leading reason. Research shows that our state’s lack of childcare accounts for $573 million in lost earnings, business productivity, and tax revenue.
The impact of these childcare deserts stings all families across the state and leaves far too many searching for high-quality early education without a plausible solution. We are moving in the right direction, most notably with increased funding for CCAP and the passage of HB 499, which aims to get the employers involved and offer childcare assistance as a benefit by matching employer contributions. I proudly sponsored that measure and am honored to lead a task force on the issue. There is room for more collaboration to find a path forward and we will spend the upcoming months working with stakeholders—parents, educators, employers, and providers—to keep finding solutions. I invite you to join the conversation. For more information, visit legislature.ky.gov.
Representative Samara Heavrin serves the state’s 18th House District and serves as co-chair of the Early Childhood Education Task Force.