By Theresa Opeka
Carolina Journal
Citing the need to expand access to affordable, high-quality childcare across North Carolina, Gov. Josh Stein issued an executive order on Monday formally establishing the Task Force for Child Care and Early Education.
He made the announcement during a visit to Kate’s Korner, a Durham childcare center.
“When we invest in childcare, everyone benefits,” Stein, a Democrat, said in a press release. “Parents get to keep working and keep building their careers. Small businesses can keep their productive workers. And most importantly, our kids get a nurturing and supportive environment where they can thrive during their formative years, one that will shape their entire educational trajectory.”
The task force, co-chaired by Lt. Gov. Rachel Hunt and Sen. Jim Burgin, R-Harnett, will identify strengths and gaps in the current system, recommend key public and private investment in childcare infrastructure, and work to recruit and retain a strong childcare workforce. It will submit reports and recommendations to Stein and the public.
Hunt made affordable childcare one of the centerpieces of her election campaign.
In a press release issued last month, she said she wants to build and lead a coalition of business leaders, families, and policymakers to make childcare more affordable by renewing and expanding the NC Tri-Share pilot program. It allows parents in several counties who work at participating businesses to split the cost of childcare evenly between themselves, their employer, and state government.
The General Assembly directed funding to the program through the 2023 budget. NC Tri-Share is currently funded through October 2025.
Lawmakers allocated $900,000 for the North Carolina Partnership for Children to divide among three regional hubs (local partnerships) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023-2024 and FY 2024-2025.
The pilot program, which began in 2024, is currently set to expire at the end of 2026.
Pandemic-era federal childcare subsidies have all but dried up. The $24 billion one-time “stabilization grants” for childcare centers were part of the American Rescue Plan passed by Congress and the Biden administration in 2021, added due to COVID business closures. The grants expired over the summer and the General Assembly released the final payment of $67.5 million in September.
The results of a survey conducted last spring by the NC Chamber reveal an industry in crisis:
- Three in 10 programs are expected to close when the stabilization grants sunset. That is more than 1,500 programs — an estimated 30% of family childcare and 28% of childcare centers.
- The survey found that 88% of programs expect to increase parent fees.
- About two-thirds of programs expect difficulty in hiring comparably experienced and educated staff.
- More than half of the respondents have already raised tuition fees in anticipation of the sunset of the grants.
- More than four in 10 expected to close or combine classrooms.
The Chamber has been the biggest lobbying group pushing members of the General Assembly to pay for childcare in the absence of the federal subsidies that have gone away.
While lawmakers are getting pressure from all sides to increase taxpayer-funded government subsidies for a specific industry, it is notable that most of these calls are not for childcare vouchers for families to spend on the best fit for their child but rather for government subsidies for childcare facilities. Carolina Journal editor in chief Donna King argued in a recent editorial that subsidies in any industry raise the overall prices for consumers, which could inadvertently make the cost crisis in childcare worse.
In a Carolina Journal poll conducted in May, 221 out of 600 respondents (36.9%) said they would like lawmakers to pass tax credits for childcare when asked how the childcare gap should be funded when pandemic funds ran out. Only 16.9%, or 102, thought legislators should provide government subsidies.
Theresa Opeka is the Executive Branch reporter for the Carolina Journal.
More wasted tax money to pay for people who can’t plan their lives correctly.
God bless S@H Moms and Present Dads that cheerfully pay the bills! In this way, children are not raised by hired strangers, but loving parents. Imagine working just to have half your pay go to paying others to raise your children. Doesn’t make sense.
By “ Task force” he means a group of paid politicians to tell people what they already know.
Just another example of wasteful spending of money we don’t have on social welfare programs. If people can afford to eat at restaurants, make expensive car payments and walk around glued to iPhones pro’s then they can pay for their kids education/daycare. Since when did it become a right in these people’s mind to take money from taxpayers and fund non essential programs like this. Illogical decisions like this is EXACTLY why inflation is insane. The wasteful spending has to stop!
This is why we need a GOP governor as well. A totally socialistic program that is once again paid for by the working taxpayers of NC. No!!!!
Listen everyone, I need all of you to go to work and give the governor your tax contributions to give to people you don’t know. Not your family or even your closest friends, but total strangers. Strangers that refuse to use birth control. Birth control that is already paid for by…you guessed it…you, the taxpayer. Oh yeah…moms, the governor needs you to go to work too, so he can get MORE revenue to give away to random folks. No more staying at home or homeschooling. And finally, work hard and get lots of promotions because that means you will pay even more!!