|
So if I have a minimum wage job and I can't afford to have any kids, but I decide to have 10 kids YOU should be required to pay me to help raise, feed and school them???
Arizona Republic columnist Linda Valdez seems to think so.
Valdez: Why taxpayers should pay for your child care Linda Valdez, The Republic | azcentral.com 4:03 p.m. MST May 25, 2016 Is your kid any of my business? It’s an easy call if the question is whether I should be telling you how to raise your child or what values to impart. I should butt out. But what about your need for affordable, quality child care? Should I care? Why should taxpayers care? More specifically, is it the taxpayers’ responsibility to provide child-care subsidies to low-income working families with small children? A recent study found infant care in Arizona costs $9,437 a year. That’s a big chunk of change for a state known for low wages. The Department of Health and Human Services says child care should take up only 10 percent of a family’s budget. By those standards, only about 30 percent of Arizona families can afford infant care. It gets worse if there is more than one child involved. To those who say, 'Hey, I raised mine' But really. My husband and I had one child and we didn't ask the taxpayers to help to raise her. Should I care if people have kids they can't afford? That’s a legitimate – if harsh – question to which Arizona’s political leaders have said “no.” Sort of. There are child-care subsidies available to low-income families in Arizona. But there are also more than 6,300 children on a priority waiting list, according to reporting by Cronkite News reporter Danika Worthington. So it’s not much of a priority. Yet children referred through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or the Department of Child Safety can bypass the waiting list. So there is a recognition of the need. A kid's brain is a terrible thing to waste What’s probably not widely appreciated is the value. A child’s brain goes through explosive development from birth to age 5. The experiences that child has – or the frustrations he or she suffers in poor-quality child care – will make a difference when the kiddo is ready for school. But again: Why should I care? One reason is common decency. Children should not suffer for their parents’ failures. There are also reasons with dollar signs attached. Hobbling kids comes with real costs Taxpayers will pay for behavioral problems if a child arrives at school carrying the baggage from being warehoused in low-quality child care. All of us also pay -- one way or another -- if low-income children start out so far behind that they never catch up. Arizona needs a quality workforce for solid economic development. With one of the nation’s highest poverty rates, much of that workforce has to come from families that can’t afford quality child care. Access to quality, affordable child care would help these families a great deal. And the need is not new. Our society has been procrastinating for decades when it comes to figuring out public policies that will help two-earner families and single-parent families succeed. Staying home isn't always an option Yes, there are some people at the mid- to high-end of the income scale who can afford to have one parent stay at home with the kids. That’s a valid choice – and it shouldn’t always be the mother who sacrifices a career. Stay-at-home dads are a great idea, too. But you need the income to make that happen. And you need two parents. Many families don't have either. The Census Bureau says an estimated 21.2 percent of all Arizonans were at or below the poverty level in 2014. The median hourly wage that year in Arizona was $16.46. Responsibility? No. But our best interest The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator says a single adult living in Maricopa County with one child needs to earn $22.70 an hour to make ends meet. That’s based on child-care costs of $6,494 a year, far less than the actual cost of infant care. So the answer to the question is: No, other people's kids are not my responsibility. But creating public policies that help low-income families raise well-adjusted, healthy children is in everybody’s best interest. |