Nearly 9,000 families are on the wait list for the Oregon Employment Related Day Care program, and family advocates are calling on lawmakers to ramp up funding to meet the growing need. Child-care prices in Oregon can exceed college tuition and have outpaced growth in household incomes, according to research by Oregon State University.
Dana Hepper, director of policy and advocacy with the Children’s Institute, said most families, even if they don’t qualify for the ERDC, cannot afford child care.
“And most child-care providers do not make living wages. So we can’t rely on just parents paying tuition to solve this child-care crisis,” she insisted.
Hepper added that the state needs to spend at least $500-million more on the ERDC program this year. This would serve the families that are on the wait list, as well as those who have vouchers for the program but cannot find a child-care provider.
All but one county in Oregon is considered a child-care desert for infants and toddlers, according to Hepper. A child-care desert is defined as having only one licensed child-care slot for every three or more children. She added that there has been more funding for preschools, such as Head Start and Multnomah County’s “Preschool For All” which has expanded access. But even if they are not deserts, Hepper added, every county in the state has a shortage of preschool care.
“I think there’s a dearth of child-care because there’s a lack of public investment in child-care. And the data bears that out,” she continued.
Hepper highlights Gilliam County as the only Oregon county that is not a desert for infant child care because it has invested public funds. She added that the ERDC program alone will not solve the child-care crisis; the state also suffers from a shortage of child-care workers.
“We need strategies that support the workforce and invest in pathways to enter this workforce with the skills that you need,” she concluded.
Oregon News Service
