{"id":34096,"date":"2024-10-30T04:24:07","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T09:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=34096"},"modified":"2024-10-31T20:53:31","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T01:53:31","slug":"new-mexicos-free-child-care-program-is-bringing-relief-millions-of-u-s-families-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=34096","title":{"rendered":"New Mexico\u2019s free child care program is bringing relief millions of U.S. families need"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SANTA FE, N.M. \u2014 Tens of millions of voters have already cast ballots in the election, with living costs top of mind<\/a>. For many families, child care is often the biggest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maggie Wright-Oviedo and her husband, JJ Oviedo, live in Santa Fe with their two young kids, baby Patricio and Uriel, a toddler. Thanks to a state program launched during the recovery from the pandemic, they pay nothing for child care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithout this, we would be struggling a lot, and with this, we are making it,\u201d said Wright-Oviedo, 41, who\u2019s both a home-care nurse and a prison outreach worker, while JJ, 42, works on a family ranch, cleans rugs for a local company and is a musician. \u201cThat\u2019s the difference,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is the key.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a signature policy victory for Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who campaigned on the issue in 2018 and was re-elected in 2022 \u2014 as well as an outcome both presidential campaigns say they want to pursue, in some form or another, for households nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vice President Kamala Harris proposes capping child care costs at 7% of working families\u2019 incomes, along with an up-to-$6,000 expanded child tax credit<\/a> for those with newborns. Former President Donald Trump hasn\u2019t outlined specific legislation, but he has said revenue from much steeper tariffs would \u201ctake care\u201d of child care costs<\/a> \u2014 a prospect many economists doubt<\/a>; his running mate, who backs a $5,000 child tax credit<\/a>, has suggested\u2002relatives could help out more<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Mexico\u2019s program is still new, and it would be hard to replicate nationally or in other states without a sustainable funding source, experts say. But its early successes \u2014 and bipartisan popularity \u2014 show how transformative a widespread government subsidy can be for young families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under a constitutional amendment approved two years ago by 70% of voters, 1.25% of the year-end market value of the state\u2019s Land Grant Permanent Fund<\/a> is now allocated<\/a> toward early childhood and public school education. The endowment, which was established when New Mexico became a state in 1912, is funded by taxes on revenue from nonrenewable resources, mainly oil and gas reserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The permanent fund now funnels more than $150 million from fossil fuel producers into child care subsidies, state officials estimate. Residents earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level, or annual household incomes of about $124,000, now qualify for free child care, and any existing copays are waived. With the state\u2019s median household income of $62,000<\/a> at about half that cutoff, more than 30,000 families now benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program is already paying dividends for New Mexico\u2019s economy, said Elizabeth Groginsky, whom Lujan Grisham appointed as the inaugural secretary of the state\u2019s Early Childhood Education and Care Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aid \u201chelps parents and caregivers join or stay in the workforce, further their education, advance professionally, save for a down payment on a home, and create financial stability,\u201d she said in a statement, adding that workforce participation among mothers of young children \u201chas also jumped far ahead of the national average\u201d since the funding rolled out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For middle-class U.S. households, child care costs typically range from 8% to 19% of household earnings per child<\/a>, according to Labor Department estimates, above the federally recommended 7% maximum. While prices stabilized last year, the average family paid around $11,600 for child care<\/a> in 2023 \u2014 10% of a median-income married family\u2019s pay and 32% of a median-income single parent\u2019s, the advocacy group Child Care Aware of America estimates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without the support, Wright-Oviedo said, her family would be spending $2,600 a month on child care, consuming at least half their take-home pay. When she learned the ballot measure had passed, she recalled, \u201cI cried. It was that much of a relief, because we didn\u2019t know how we were going to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her family still lives paycheck to paycheck, she said, but they\u2019ve begun to pay down their debt from student loans and maternity leave for the first time, and they recently bought a reliable car. They\u2019ve been renting from a relative but hope to begin building their own home soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Wright-Oviedo no longer has to worry about child care costs, she\u2019s still backing Harris, citing her health care proposals, which include forgiving medical debt<\/a> for millions of people, expanding coverage for at-home care<\/a> and broadening efforts to lower drug prices<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wright-Oviedo said her older relatives are still independent, but she acknowledged she\u2019s on the cusp of the \u201csandwich generation\u201d Harris has discussed<\/a> \u2014 those caring for children and aging parents simultaneously. As elder care costs continue to outpace inflation<\/a>, the Democratic ticket sees that constituency as key to victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur loving moms are in their late 70s,\u201d Wright-Oviedo noted, and many of her relatives are \u201chustling\u201d for their own financial needs already. \u201cAnybody who\u2019s taken care of a toddler and a baby knows that you can\u2019t just hand a baby and a toddler off to your aging parent and say, \u2018OK, see you in eight hours,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Mexico\u2019s model may not be easy to scale up, said Taryn Morrissey, a professor of public policy at American University\u2019s School of Public Affairs. The state\u2019s endowment is unique, and \u201cother places just don\u2019t have the funds for it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are other states that are contributing their own state and local funds to child care subsidies, to either expand eligibility or to increase reimbursement rates to pay for high-quality care,\u201d Morrissey said, \u201cbut it\u2019s expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Mexico\u2019s program also made permanent a pay raise for day care workers that initially had been funded with temporary federal pandemic aid. Entry-level employees now make at least $15 an hour and lead teachers $20 \u2014 a roughly 30% increase, the governor\u2019s office says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the change, many \u201cteachers had to have a second job in a fast-food restaurant, and that was not OK,\u201d said Deyanira Contreras, the director of Kids Campus Santa Fe, an early childhood education provider where more than 90% of families qualify for free child care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Randy Orona-Torres, the lead pre-K teacher at Kids Campus, had been picking up shifts at McDonald\u2019s. Now he makes an additional $7 an hour, and the state is paying for his bachelor\u2019s degree in early childhood education, thanks to scholarship money from the early childhood department. \u201cI don\u2019t see [teaching] as a struggle anymore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contreras said teachers at Kids Campus now earn more than New Mexico\u2019s public school teachers. Those with bachelor\u2019s degrees can make $59,000 annually, and those with master\u2019s degrees can make $65,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople used to think that early childhood educators were like babysitters, but now they\u2019re giving us the right treatment,\u201d Orona-Torres said. \u201cWe\u2019re educators, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SANTA FE, N.M. \u2014 Tens of millions of voters have already cast ballots in the election, with living costs top of mind. For many families, child care is often the biggest. Maggie Wright-Oviedo and her husband, JJ Oviedo, live in Santa Fe with their two young kids, baby Patricio and Uriel, a toddler. Thanks to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":34097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1155],"tags":[31027,1369,4959,4106],"class_list":["post-34096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-free-child-care-program","tag-kids","tag-new-mexico","tag-relief"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34098,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34096\/revisions\/34098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}