Project 2029 - 6 Childcare

 Dear Friends, 

The cost of childcare and early childhood education is a major concern for American working families. The cost to the family for pre-kindergarten childcare in the United States is dramatically higher than in other developed countries.  The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published a study of full-time center-based care for singe and couple households with two children aged 2 and 3 where the household makes 67% of the average wage.  

According to that study the net cost to the parent(s) for such childcare in the United States is between 20% and 32% of the average wage.  At the other end of the spectrum is Canada where the net cost to the parent(s) is between -2% and 11%.  The OECD average is between 6% and 10%.  By comparison, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says that childcare is affordable if it costs no more than 7% of a family’s income, which means that in the US we are paying 3 to 5 times what DHS says is affordable.

 

World Data recently published a report entitled: “US Childcare Cost Statistics 2026 | Prices, States & Facts” 

In that report it summarizes the status of US childcare as follows:

 

These facts collectively paint a picture of a childcare system in the United States that is failing on every dimension at once: too expensive for families, too underpaid for workers, and too scarce in the communities that need it most. The gap between the HHS 7% affordability benchmark and the 20%+ that families actually spend is not a small discrepancy — it represents a systemic market failure that policymakers have discussed for decades but never meaningfully resolved. What is particularly striking in the 2026 data is how the crisis has crossed an emotional and behavioral threshold: families are now reporting that childcare costs are directly shaping decisions about whether to have children at all, not merely how many to have. With nearly half of all U.S. census tracts qualifying as childcare deserts and the workforce paid wages in the bottom 5% of all U.S. occupations, supply and demand are both broken — and they are broken together.

 

We in the United States have made a policy choice to permit a failed early childhood education and care program to exist in the richest country in the world.  Generally, early childhood education and care (ECEC), is defined as the development of a child’s social, emotional, cognitive and physical needs by persons outside the family from birth to the age of about 8 years.  The US spends less than 0.5% of GDP on ECEC.  The EU and the OECD recommend spending 1.0%, more than twice what the US spends. Iceland, France and the Nordic countries spend at least 1.0%.  See here and here.

There many, many reasons to prioritize ECEC.  A 2025 OECD report entitled, “Why G20 countries should prioritise quality early childhood education” summarizes those reasons as follows:

 

High-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) lays the foundation for lifelong learning. Children who attend well-designed early learning programmes are more likely to succeed in school, reach higher levels of education and find rewarding employment. ECEC also offers a unique window to develop key capabilities such as curiosity, empathy, creativity and other social and emotional skills. These are essential in the 21st century and often evolve into lasting personality traits…

The benefits of high-quality ECEC extend well beyond the individual. More educated populations are associated with stronger workforces, greater innovation and improved social cohesion. High-quality ECEC also supports broader labour market participation by enabling parents to work, contributing to a larger workforce and reducing the risk of children living in poverty. It strengthens children’s readiness for school and boosts labour market outcomes – thus having the potential to contribute to a fairer society. In short, ECEC is an investment that produces huge social and economic dividends.

 

While the US does provide public K-12 education (in some jurisdiction pre-K-12), the quality and the funding are determined by the states and local jurisdictions.  Less than 10% of the funding comes from the federal government.  

 

All American working families and their children deserve high-quality free childcare and education from birth through high school.  Clearly, one of the policies that the Democrats must include in their Project 2029 is to dramatically increase the government subsidies for early childhood education and care and K-12 education to achieve the goal of free high-quality childcare from birth to pre-K and free high-quality education from pre-K through high school. 

Thanks for reading and please comment,

The Unabashed Liberal