Arizona

Here's an opinion column from AZ. Subsidies allow parents a kind of second chance. A lot of parents did it backwards - they had the child then they got the job or more likely they had the child and then figured out that they needed an education to make enough money to support a family. The voucher program says, "OK, so you screwed up. We'll give you another chance. If you go to school, if you work as well, we'll pay childcare costs till you can make a good living. Makes sense to me. Everyone makes mistakes. But the voucher program has a very long waiting list, and some tough standards. When the amount paid is not enough - then what?

Judy

Tucson Citizen

Our Opinion:

State subsidy for child care is out of dateTucson Citizen Arizona legislators will be hit with a blizzard of requests for money when they convene in January.

Because state tax collections are up substantially, the treasury is bulging with unexpected dough. And there are plenty of ideas how that money should be spent.

Here is one idea that is different from most - an area that, if funded, would end up saving the state more than is spent.

That area is child-care subsidies.

Working parents who earn a reasonable income can afford to pay for high-quality child care. But a lot of parents, especially single, working moms, do not earn enough to cover the ever-increasing cost of taking care of their children.

For them, the state provides a sliding subsidy, with the amount depending on the family's income.

Four states - Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina and Arizona - have not raised their child-care rates in at least seven years. Arizona is still paying subsidies based on what child-care cost in 1998.

The maximum that Arizona will pay for a 3-year-old Pima County child in preschool for 10 hours a day, five days a week, is $110. That was adequate in 1998. But the state's own surveys show child-care costs have increased 30 percent since then.

Legislators may think they are saving money by keeping the subsidy rate low. It's a false savings. If parents are unable to afford high-quality day care for their children, one of three things will happen:

Parents will be forced to put their children in substandard day-care facilities.

Day-care providers will be forced to lower the quality of services they provide and become little more than baby-sitting services.

Parents will be forced to quit work, stay at home and care for their children.

None of those outcomes benefits the state. And all end up costing taxpayers more - either in the long run for children whose inadequate day care poorly prepared them for school or immediately when parents are forced to stop working and instead receive public assistance.

Last year, the Legislature took an important step to make high-quality day care available to more Arizonans. It increased funding for day-care subsidies so a waiting list with hundreds of qualified parents was eliminated.

That was a needed move. Lawmakers should now take the next step and increase the daily subsidy level. The seven-year-old rates are clearly inadequate.