Child care has been a banner issue for Gov. Phil Scott and Democratic leadership in the Legislature this session, and a proposal is slowing winding its way through the Statehouse.
But the bill, H. 531, is a pared-back version of the investment advocates and lawmakers had initially called for, and at least one more belt-tightening is expected before the legislation crosses the finish line.
As passed by the House, the proposal would inject $10.5 million into the early care and learning system in its first year. About $7 million would help pay for more generous child-care subsidies, $1 million would fund loan repayment assistance and scholarships for child care workers, and another $1 million would fund the technology upgrades the Department for Children and Families says are necessary to implement the new system.
Vermont currently allocates about $50 million annually to child care subsidies. But the system is under-utilized, and state officials and advocates say that’s because the benefit is too meagre except for the very poorest Vermonters to make sense for families to access.
The lynchpin of the legislation is a redesign of the subsidies. It would increase the eligibility cap and lower the co-payment families pay. Under the current system, a single parent making $15 an hour with an infant and preschooler pays an estimated $250 a week on child care, even with subsidies. After the redesign, they would pay a flat $25 co-pay. The changes would bring an estimated 500 additional families into the program, once they were fully implemented.
The bill is now in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, where lawmakers are deciding how they might trim the bill while leaving the core of the redesign in place before sending it on to Senate Appropriations.
“We’re really trying to sort out how much is absolutely necessary to get this thing off the ground, and allow us to also do some of the other things that we’re seeing in our committee,” said Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden, who chairs Senate Health and Welfare.
Sen. Richie Westman, R-Lamoille, who sits on both Health and Welfare and Appropriations has been the main go-between between the two committees.
Westman would like see changes to the workforce incentives — he thinks more needs to be done to get new workers into the industry, instead of just helping those who have already chosen to work in child care. He’s also negotiating whether to eliminate a $2.5 million grant program that helps buoy providers who take infants and serve a high percentage of subsidized families in order to help pay for the subsidy overhaul.
And he’s trying to find out how much money will actually be available for all the changes.
“We really don’t have a bottom line yet,” he said.
