Group suggests using tax referendums to fund child care
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It's rare to find an issue that Democrats, Republicans and just about everyone in between agrees on — but Indiana's child care crisis is one of them.
Why it matters: Lack of access to child care and preschool is a major barrier to workforce participation for families and educational attainment for children.
Reality check: Policymakers want to address the crisis but don't agree on how.
- And in next year's short legislative session, during which lawmakers generally don't take up bills with new state spending, it's unclear how much progress can be made.
Driving the news: The Preschool Choice Alliance has an idea for how to increase funding to the early childhood education and child care landscape without asking the state to chip in.
- The newly established group, still working to secure its nonprofit status, wants lawmakers to use the referendum process — most commonly used for public schools to raise teacher pay or fund construction projects — to fund local preschool programs.
How it would work: Like other referendums, a question would be placed on ballots to let local voters decide whether to raise their property taxes to pay for preschool.
- Each community could decide how much to raise and how to use the funds.
- "We're at a place where we need to think about a lot of different solutions," Patrick McAlister, founder of the Preschool Choice Alliance, told Axios. "How do we create something that works in any community, not just one community over the other?"
State of play: According to a CNBC study, Indiana was the worst state in the country for access to child care last year.
- It's gotten worse this year, as the state has stopped giving out new child care vouchers that help low-income families afford care.
- More than 30,000 families are on the waiting list for a subsidy.
By the numbers: Even if families could afford child care, Hoosier providers don't have the capacity to serve all who need it.
- A study from Early Learning Indiana estimates that there are only spots for roughly 60% of children who need care.
- Plus: Dozens of centers have closed this year.
Between the lines: Lawmakers told Axios on Thursday that the referendum proposal would have a tough pathway through the Statehouse.
- Rep. Bob Behning (R-Indianapolis) said a solution that creates a patchwork of communities with more access than others isn't likely to move forward.
- He also said any kind of tax increase, even one voters choose, probably won't get much lawmaker support in an election year.
What they're saying: Rep. Dave Heine (R-Fort Wayne) said House Republicans are looking instead at expanding the state's program that gives tax credits for contributions to scholarship-granting organizations (SGOs) to early childhood programs.
- "It's been working for years, so we're just going to get that going for child care," Heine said during a legislative panel Thursday.
- McAlister told Axios that SGOs may be part of the solution, but that the problem will need multiple policy approaches.
"There are ongoing discussions about a variety of different approaches," he said. "What's useful is that it's a clear problem that I think many lawmakers recognize."