As a child care provider, your work is essential to this crisis and to Oregon’s recovery. You are doing the work that makes it possible for parents to work and for Oregon’s children to thrive. Unfortunately, providers like you have subsidized the lack of public investment in child care for years. Now, in the midst of a public health crisis, providers are reaching a breaking point, and many are on the brink of permanently closing.

State and federal leaders need to step up and make an immediate investment in Oregon’s critical child care infrastructure. Join us in demanding action from our lawmakers! 

We’ve written letters to Governor Brown and Oregon’s Congressional delegation demanding more money for child care in a federal stimulus package and a quick disbursement of these much-needed funds directly into the hands of child care providers. Add your name now!

LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR:

To: Governor Kate Brown

CC: Miriam Calderon, Alyssa Chatterjee, Lyndsy Capps, Dan Haun, Rosa Klein, state legislators 

As child care providers, we are writing to implore you to prioritize robust and immediate investment in our industry. Child care is essential to Oregon’s economy; we are doing the work that makes it possible for parents to work and for Oregon’s children to thrive. Our work is essential to this crisis and to Oregon’s recovery.

Even before COVID-19, the child care sector has been a very low-margin industry. We experience high costs, due to essential health and safety requirements, and cannot truly charge parents what it costs for us to operate. Unlike our public education system, child care is largely a private-tuition system, meaning parents pay the vast majority of the cost for the care and education their children receive. Unfortunately, as providers we are also subsidizing the lack of robust public investment in child care with our low wages. This has to change. We need Oregon to invest in our industry in a way that acknowledges that it is essential to our economy, to our education system, to our health care system, and to Oregon’s families.

Our industry has been hit hard during the COVID-19 crisis and we have not been provided with adequate support. Most child care facilities have closed, and we do not have sufficient resources to cover our costs during these closures. Other providers have remained open to serve Oregon’s essential employees, though our costs for virus safety precautions have increased and we are serving fewer children than we would normally serve to comply with social distancing. 

Providers who remain open need to be compensated for increased operating costs and every staff person needs to be compensated with Hazard Pay. We are serving fewer children now; and due to tight margins in child care we are losing money every day. We need to be compensated for the lost tuition for children no longer attending child care by continuing ERDC tuition payments and by creating a Program Sustainability Fund for non-subsidy tuition. 

Providers who closed need help covering costs throughout this closure, including payroll, rent, utilities and other operating expenses, so we are ready to re-open when it is time to do so. This could be provided through continued ERDC tuition payments and by creating a Program Sustainability Fund for non-subsidy tuition. It can take years to site new facilities, and every county in Oregon was already deemed a child care desert before this crisis. If Oregon does not invest in us now, many of us will be unable to re-open after this crisis, putting our broader economic recovery in jeopardy.

The $38 million allocated to Oregon through the CARES Act is meant to support the child care industry now, so those resources need to be spent in the field immediately. This is not the time to budget ahead for months. These resources should be spent by May 30th to support our current child care providers and protect Oregon’s already scarce child care supply. All spending in existing and new programs should attempt to reverse traditional inequities that exist in this industry that is 95% women and disproportionately women of color and immigrants.

This is the first federal investment. More federal money will be allocated for child care. The speed in which Oregon spends this first wave of federal funds will determine how many child care providers survive this economic challenge. Waiting to spend all $38 million or withholding ERDC payments will ensure massive closures in this industry and make child care unavailable for too many Oregon workers. 

Please stand with Oregon child care providers and invest in sustaining child care supply today.

LETTER TO CONGRESS:

To: Congressman Walden, Senator Wyden, Senator Merkley, Congressman Blumenauer, Congresswoman Bonamici, Congressman DeFazio, and Congressman Schrader

As child care providers, we are writing to implore you to prioritize robust and immediate investment in our industry. As you consider expansions to the CARES Act or future federal infrastructure spending packages, we believe it is essential that child care be fully funded throughout this crisis and as we work to recover from it.  

Even before COVID-19, the child care sector has been a very low-margin industry. We experience high costs, due to essential health and safety requirements, and cannot truly charge parents what it costs for us to operate. Unlike our public education system, child care is largely a private-pay system, meaning parents pay the vast majority of the cost through tuition for the care and education their children receive. Unfortunately, as providers we are also subsidizing the lack of robust public investment in child care with our very low wages. 

This crisis has exposed critical gaps in our country’s public infrastructure, including gaps in our child care system at large. We need our country to invest in our industry in a way that acknowledges that it is essential to the larger economy, to our education system, to our health care system, and to families.

Our industry has been hit hard during the COVID-19 crisis and we have not been provided with adequate support. Most child care facilities have closed, and we do not have sufficient resources to cover our costs during these closures. Other providers have remained open to serve Oregon’s essential employees, though our costs for virus safety precautions have increased and we are caring for fewer children than we would normally serve to comply with social distancing. 

Please include at least $50B of CCDBG in the fourth stimulus package. Although we are thankful for $3.5B of CCDBG in the CARES Act, the $38M coming to Oregon funds less than one month of the need from child care providers in the state. Oregon estimates that providing hazard pay & increased operating costs for emergency child care, continuing tuition payments for subsidy & private pay dependent providers, and providing child care assistance for essential employees is closer to $60M per month. Most child care providers will not be able to access small business loans and the paycheck protection program. Traditional inequities are more dramatically visible in this industry that is 95% women and disportionately women of colors and immigrants. In-home child care providers are self employed and many child care businesses do not have existing relationships with the financial institutions providing these federal options. Additionally, due to our high costs and low margins related to staffing and facilities, the parameters around these loans were not the right fit for protecting our industry.

Providers who remain open need to be compensated for increased operating costs and every staff person needs to be compensated with Hazard Pay. We are serving less children now. With tight margins in child care, we are losing money every day. We need to be compensated for the lost tuition of children no longer attending by continuing ERDC tuition payments and creating a Program Sustainability Fund for non-subsidy tuition. Providers who closed need help covering costs throughout this closure, including payroll, rent, utilities and other operating expenses, in addition to continued ERDC tuition payments and creating a Program Sustainability Fund for non-subsidy tuition. It can take years to site new facilities, and every county in Oregon was already deemed a child care desert before this crisis. If Congress does not provide funding now, many of us will be unable to re-open after this crisis, putting our broader economic recovery in jeopardy.

Every week that passes without a significant bailout of the child care industry puts our recovery as an industry and a nation at risk. It takes years to site new facilities or to train and certify new providers. Every Oregon county was already a child care desert before this crisis, and if we continue to lose people and facilities during this crisis we will make this problem exponentially worse.

Child care is essential to our economy. It is as necessary an infrastructure to our economy as roads and bridges. We are doing the work that makes it possible for others to work and for our country’s children to thrive. Our work is essential always, it is essential in this crisis, and it will be essential to our country’s economic recovery and long-term stability.