Cover photo credit pexels.com by Naomi Shi
by Annmarie Timmins, New Hampshire Bulletin
October 17, 2024
The next governor will inherit a statewide child care crisis that has persisted despite recent state and federal investments totaling more than $160 million. And to tackle it, she will get a tight budget that’s lost two key revenue streams: millions in pandemic aid and the now-repealed interest and dividends tax.
The crisis is complex.
There are too few slots because recruiting and retaining workers is hard at a median salary of $15.62 an hour, less than what retail workers and preschool teachers earn, according to the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute. That’s contributed to a shortage of slots that totaled about 8,400 a year between 2018 and 2022, the institute found.
And what’s available is expensive and can be far from a family’s home.
The average annual cost of child care in a center for an infant and a 4-year-old together was $28,340 in 2022, according to the institute. And, the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire recently reported that while the number of child care slots for children under 5 increased by 5.6 percent between 2017 and 2024, the number of providers for that age group dropped by about the same amount, leaving more communities without child care.
Both candidates running for governor, Republican Kelly Ayotte and Democrat Joyce Craig, have said expanding affordable, high-quality child care in New Hampshire is a top priority. Each has also shared her own experiences of raising children while working.
Ayotte called the child care shortage a problem as serious as the housing crisis at a recent forum hosted by AARP NH and Stay Work Play. At the same forum, Craig shared her own story of struggling to find child care for her second child.
Here’s where Ayotte and Craig stand on two key child care issues: cost and workforce.
Scholarships
The state subsidizes child care costs for eligible families through a child care scholarship program that is funded with state and federal dollars. Lawmakers expanded the eligibility in the current budget to make child care more affordable for low- and moderate-income families.
Lawmakers also increased the amount of subsidies.
Now, a family of two making under $72,193 a year may be eligible if it meets other requirements: their children must be under 13, or 18 if they have a disability, and they must be working, looking for work, or in a training program.
The New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute reported in August that enrollment increased 21 percent in the first six months of the changes. Still, child care providers and others have said the application process can be so difficult and time consuming that some eligible families are not taking advantage of the assistance.
Both Craig and Ayotte said they support the expanded eligibility and increased subsidies and echoed concerns about the application process. Both said they would streamline that process, namely by cutting the “red tape” but have not been more specific.
As one step in that direction, Craig said she’d work to ensure the state fills vacancies, which she said have contributed to delays in delivering state services generally.
At the forum, both candidates connected the need for more child care to the economy.
“Families say that this scholarship has been instrumental in allowing working mothers to stay working and thriving,” Ayotte said.
Craig recalled talking with a mother who said she was spending about 70 percent of her income on child care.
“So to me, it’s really easy to be able to look at a process and fix it so we have more people getting the scholarships that they need to send their children to child care on the state side,” Craig told the audience.
Assistance for child care workers
Beginning in January, child care providers will be automatically eligible for a child care scholarship if their earnings are equal to or less than the median income where they live. They must also meet the other scholarship requirements.
The one-year, $1 million pilot project passed this year was celebrated by child care advocates, though they noted that most child care providers already qualify for the existing scholarship due to their income. The pilot will not continue unless lawmakers include it in the budget.
Neighboring states have taken their own steps to entice more people into the child care workforce.
Maine provides child care workers a monthly stipend of up to $625. Vermont reimburses eligible state employees for some child care costs. And Massachusetts has a pilot program that provides financial assistance to child care providers.
Neither candidate responded when asked by the Bulletin if they supported those specific measures. Nor did they reply to a question asking if they’d support continuing New Hampshire’s pilot scholarship program beyond one year.
Craig said in an email that she supported “alleviating costs through property tax exemptions for childcare facilities and providing incentives to increase the number of childcare workers.”
During the pandemic, the state funneled pandemic relief aid, which won’t be available going forward, to child care providers for worker bonuses and other investments.
Ayotte cited a need to “elevate” the child care profession and to look beyond state government to increase access.
“As governor, Kelly will work with community colleges and universities to provide additional training and business management skills to support child care as a career path in New Hampshire,” her campaign said in an email.
Ayotte also said she would work with the private sector to support employer child care programs and look for ways for nonprofits to add or expand child care. At the forum, she cited the Boys and Girls Club of Nashua’s $10 million campaign to enhance its child care services.
“This is not an easy one, but it’s going to have to be…all of us working together,” Ayotte said at the forum.
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