Senator Amanda Ragan
(2/13/14) DES MOINES – Senate Democrats today unveiled two key legislative proposals to give Iowa children a head start in life. The first would ensure universal access for all Iowa four-year-olds to affordable, high quality preschool. The second improves the availability and stability of childcare for lower income working families.
No Waiting Lists for Quality Preschool
“Eliminating the quality preschool waiting lists is the next logical step towards better school performance for Iowa children,” said Senator Herman Quirmbach of Ames, chair fo the Senate Education Committee. “I hope that we have bipartisan support for universal preschool so that thousands more Iowa children are ready to learn on their first day of kindergarten.”
The proposal would:
1) Provide enough state funding so every community can provide preschool to every four-year-old whose parent seeks admission.
2) Eliminate waiting lists by expanding capacity.
3) Launch an outreach effort to boost enrollment. (In 2012, only 55% of the almost 40,000 eligible Iowa 4-year olds actually took part.)
4) Ensure that districts reach out to historically underserved populations.
5) Continue and expand incentives for robust public/private partnerships.
When fully implemented after three years, the on-going annual cost would be an estimated $37 million.
Help lower-income working families afford childcare
“Childcare is a crushing expense for many young, working families,” said Senator Amanda Ragan of Mason City, chair of the Senate Human Resources Committee. “A parent earning $9 per hour with a young child spends more than 40 percent of his or her weekly paycheck on childcare.”
Iowa’s Child Care Assistance Program helps lower-income working families by paying all or part of the cost of high quality childcare. All support ends the moment a family earns a dollar more than the “financial cliff” specified in state law. The United Way and others have told legislators of working Iowans who have turned down raises or higher-paying jobs so they can remain eligible for childcare assistance.
“Rather than throwing families over a financial cliff, childcare assistance should gradually be reduced as parents gain new skills and increase their income,” said Ragan. “Legislators from both parties want Iowa children to have consistent, stable, high quality childcare services while their parents access training and new career opportunities.”
Ragan is working on legislation that will help working families pay for childcare by:
1) Smooth out the financial cliff by increasing the maximum family income while gradually increasing copays as income rises. Under current law, for example, as soon as a single parent with one child receives a pay raise and earns a dollar more than approximately $22,500, they are no longer eligible for help.
2) Broadening eligibility by allowing parents to qualify if their combined hours spent working or studying is least 28 hours. Under current law, a parent must EITHER work at least 28 hours a week OR take classes 28 hours a week.
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Background: Smarter Kids, Stronger Families
Preschool expansion key to successful early childhood
For far too long, Iowa lacked a systemic approach to the implementation of a quality preschool. Iowa previously targeted preschool programs to certain families or to children with disabilities. However, research has shown that ALL children can benefit from access to quality preschool programming.
The Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program (SVPP) is largest and newest early childhood program that strives to serve all students from all backgrounds. The Preschool Program was established May 10, 2007, in House File 877. Before this legislation, only 19 percent of 3- and 4-year-old children in Iowa were served by quality preschools. In the fall of 2012, almost 21,500 Iowa preschoolers (55 percent), in 314 school districts (out of 348) benefit from the SVPP by providing at least 10 hours per week of developmentally appropriate instruction. Cost to school aid is approximately $60 million.
Districts collaborate with a variety of state/federal and community partner preschools to provide the SVPP. Partners represent a variety of entities including Head Start and Shared Visions as well as faith-based, private for-profit and non-profit preschools.
Two recent reports indicate positive results for students who have participated in quality classes and far fewer students of poverty who attended the state preschool will require intensive intervention. Children in quality learning environments were less likely to drop out of school, repeat grades, need special education, or get into future trouble with the law than similar children who did not have such exposure.
Given the evidence of educational gains from preschool, the most obvious problems of the SVPP have to do with students who do not attend. In 2012-13, thirty-four districts still did not participate. Additionally, of those that did participate, numerous districts did not meet all of demand. It is hard to know just how many four-year-olds were denied access. Some districts maintained waiting lists, but some districts may simply have turned excess students away.
To address some of these problems, the Iowa Senate Education Committee has recently introduced Senate Study Bill 3155. Financial incentives are provided to each local school district to meet the goal of eliminating waiting lists and to help cover the costs of expanding capacity.
Helping working families afford childcare removes barriers to employment
Iowans are fortunate to live in a state with a strong economy and lower cost of living when compared to many other regions of the country. However, such generalities mask the reality that poverty is growing in Iowa and more families are struggling to make ends meet. In fact, one in four Iowa families does not make enough money to meet their basic needs. A recent report from the Iowa Policy Project finds that a single-parent raising two children in Iowa requires an annual of salary between $45,404 and $48,184 just to meet basic needs. This salary translates to an hourly rate of $22.70 to $24.09 for a fulltime employee.
One of the most significant barriers to self-sufficiency and career progression, particularly for persons without a four-year college degree, is the cost of childcare. For a person making $9.00 per hour with a young child, over 41% of his or her weekly paycheck would go to childcare.
Fortunately, Iowa has a program that can help lower-income families pursue training or career advancement while providing high quality child care: the Child Care Assistance Program. This program pays all or part of the cost of childcare services for low wage working parents.
The United Way and partner organizations spoke to members of the Senate Human Resources Committee this past week to discuss improvements to the Child Care Assistance Program. One of the biggest issues they identified is “the cliff effect.” In short, a family is no longer eligible for the program once the household income reaches a certain threshold. Because childcare costs are expensive, the loss in eligibility is a significant financial detriment to the family. In fact, the loss in resources is so great, that people have turned down raises or higher-paying offers of employment to remain eligible for the program. Presenters suggested that Iowa should consider improving the program by gradually reducing benefits as income increases to ensure that families have sufficient resources to continue providing high quality childcare as their careers progress.
Iowa ranks among the top states in the percentage of children under age six with all parents in the labor force. It’s important for the future of our state that children have access to consistent, high quality childcare services and their parents are able to access training and career opportunities without fear of risking the loss of childcare services.
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