Chad Dunkley: What society loses when we cut child care

04/22/2005

Chad Dunkley
Star Tribune
April 22, 2005

A 4-year-old girl from Bloomington has spent much of the past year living away from her mother and two older siblings.

Her mother can no longer afford child care because her copay increased significantly, the result of cuts to child care assistance programs in 2003, so she is forced to drive her little girl two hours away to Grandma’s house, where the child stays from Sunday night to Friday night. Each week this family is torn apart. The little girl doesn’t understand money, taxes or politics. All she understands is the hurt of being separated.

This family’s story is one of hundreds across the state, of working families struggling to find child care options. Those stories were enough to make 300 business leaders join the Minnesota School Readiness Business Advisory Council (MSRBAC) and take a stand on the state’s lack of commitment to early childhood education. Nationally, business leaders and legislators from both sides of the political spectrum are rallying together on this issue, yet in Minnesota, a majority of legislators continues to ignore it and the damage that funding cuts have caused.

In 2003, $86 million in cuts to child care assistance programs created a string of unfortunate events: parents returning to welfare, child care centers closing and 10,000 children across the state losing the chance to attend a high-quality program that would prepare them for future success. Now the damage is poised to worsen. If proposals from Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the House pass, another $88 million could be cut from child care assistance for working families.

Why is it that most political thinking at the State Capitol is all about the next paycheck, the next rebate and the next budget forecast, rather than about long-term solutions? Some legislators want to run the state less like a vibrant economic engine such as 3M—which thrives on innovation and building long-term value—and more like Enron, where the focus is on short-term returns for certain stakeholders.

At a recent early childhood conference, Speaker of the House Steve Sviggum said that while he has read the studies showing a $17 return for every $1 invested in early childhood education, it’s hard to find the first dollar. This is the kind of shortsighted thinking that will handicap our state’s economic growth. We want our top legislators to think beyond the two-year budget cycle. Could you imagine if the major companies driving the economy of this state thought only two years ahead? There wouldn’t be a 3M, a Cargill or a Target Corp.

Someday, that 4-year-old from Bloomington will understand money, taxes and politics. Maybe she’ll even run for a state legislative position and become the visionary we so desperately need at the Capitol. In the meantime, we have to take steps to ensure that she and other children have the right opportunities while they’re young.