EDITORIAL
Boosting support for childcare best policy
By all accounts, Hawai'i is making a determined effort to support the intent of national and local welfare reform laws by offering robust help to families in need of childcare.
But it still isn't enough. And the gap between what is needed and what is available will only increase if changes now being promoted by President Bush become law.
This will pose a crucial policy decision for state legislators and administrators in the year or two ahead: If they truly want welfare "reform" to work, they will have to create the support net necessary to make it happen.
And nothing is more important than childcare. A core feature of welfare reform laws is the requirement that parents seek out and accept jobs. Almost by definition, those jobs will be at entry-level wages or close to it.
If there are children at home, the parent (and often it is a single parent) faces a difficult choice: Take the job and leave the children at home or seek out childcare, which often will soak up most if not all of her earnings.
The state budget for childcare subsidies has soared from $23.4 million in 1998 (before welfare reform kicked in) to $36.6 million last year, while the number of children receiving subsidies has doubled.
As good as those numbers may look, they still leave many families scrambling. And the picture will get worse if Congress agrees with Bush and increases the number of job hours required. While Congress is talking about adding some extra money for childcare, national experts say it is woefully short of what is needed.
The likely outcome is that the burden will slip to the states. That's where the policy decision comes in. The choice will be between allowing greater numbers of children to go without adequate care and supervision or spending more on a broader array of childcare options.
As a matter of good social policy, it only makes sense to boost support for childcare. There is little point in forcing parents into the job market if their children are left unattended.
