Editor’s note: This commentary is by Chloe Learey, the executive director of Winston Prouty Center for Child and Family Development in Brattleboro. She serves on the Building Bright Futures State Advisory Council, a governor-appointed body which advises the administration and Legislature on early childhood care, health and education systems. She recently was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce.
[C]hild care offers a two-generational strategy for economic development by making it possible in the short term for people with young children to enter the workforce and by building our future workforce for the long term.
If we want to attract a younger workforce, a demographic in prime child-bearing and -rearing years, we cannot afford to ignore the issues of access to high quality, affordable child care. If we want our children to have the skills they need to be our future leaders we cannot ignore child care. Understanding this value proposition leads to next steps of identifying initiatives at the company and community level to support the investment.
Individual companies and organizations are best positioned to gather information about what family needs their employees have. A variety of policies can help families with young children maximize their ability to fully participate in the workplace and be successful in their jobs.
For instance, flexible work arrangements from telecommuting to off-hours work options might help employees better manage work and caregiving opportunities. Flexible spending accounts give families a tax break on child care expenses.
Subsidizing to the cost of child care greatly alleviates a family financial burden and is not taxable for them for up to $5,000. On-site child care creates an easy option for families to access. There is a broad range of possibilities from low-barrier and easy-to-implement to higher cost infrastructure investments, and each company do a cost-benefit analysis to determine what makes sense for them. The Home Depot is one company that looked at a variety of options and implemented several across a continuum of benefits, including building on-site child care for associates in the Atlanta area. Studies have shown that on-site care decreases absenteeism by 30 percent and employee turnover by up to 60 percent, a clear positive contribution to the bottom line.
Once business leaders and others successfully implement organizational policies, it is possible to tackle the issue of investing in child care as an economic development activity at the community level. Ultimately, this is where we can leverage the individual experiences we have to make a collective difference locally and potentially statewide, bringing together the expertise and ideas of multiple people to make a collective plan. In their publication “Workforce of Today, Workforce of Tomorrow: The Business Case for High-Quality Child Care” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation highlights the state of Minnesota where “the business community has been credited with catalyzing improvements to the childcare system and garnering increased public attention and investment.” Highlighting research on the economic impact of early learning and brain development made clear that a coordinated effort was needed, and the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation was formed. This private entity launched pilot initiatives to test ideas for how to make a difference. The success of these initiatives led to advocacy for public sector investment, leading to more sustainable, long-term funding.
We can build this type of joint venture locally as well, creating a foundation for seeking investment on a larger scale, and eventually tying into statewide efforts that are aligned with our community goals. For instance, Vermont Birth to Five announced in January their Make Way for Kids program and grant targeted to increasing the number of high-quality child care slots in Vermont by 500 annually.
We might be able to identify a target like that for our region, maybe adding 50 slots in the next three years. Another statewide initiative is the Vermont Early Childhood Business Council, supported by The Permanent Fund, a forum where we can learn from others’ experiences and amplify our own. In order to leverage those kinds of opportunities we need to create a local coalition to understand our community needs in terms of child care and economic development and coordinate our efforts to make a difference. High-quality affordable child care is not a luxury, it is a necessity for a healthy, prosperous economy.