The state’s child care system is collapsing. It needs state support to keep it afloat.

Idaho’s child care system is collapsing, and the resulting effects will be devastating for families, employers, and our economy. Families that depend on affordable, quality care are being left with few options and many providers are at their breaking point, being unable to find staff to operate at needed capacity.

This situation is dire and, if we do not act to support this industry and its early childhood professionals now, the dwindling of available child care availability will only get worse. While this assessment is bleak, we have never had a better opportunity to address the structural barriers to accessing child care than right now, but we need to be clear on what is causing this problem.

The role COVID has played in decimating this industry cannot be overstated, but our system of early childhood care was insufficient to meet the needs of Idaho families prior to the pandemic. Most child care providers are small businesses that operate on thin margins and aim to make their rates accessible for families, but often the cost of care is too expensive for families.

While programs like child care facility grants and wage enhancements for staff provided by the state have been a lifeline to many, providers and families are stuck in an untenable situation: Centers cannot hire staff because wages are not competitive. If they cannot hire staff, they cannot operate at full capacity reducing the number of available options for parents. Raising wages to be competitive means pricing many families out of access to care.

Policymakers need to acknowledge that child care is essential infrastructure and needs to be supported in a manner that other crucial infrastructure is supported. Our agricultural industry, for example, ensures we all have food and when natural disasters or market fluctuations affect the financial solvency of the farmers and their ability to produce food, they are kept afloat through a system that includes subsidies and other mechanisms. While not everyone needs child care the same way we all need affordable food, our economy needs working parents, and those parents depend on child care. Without access to affordable child care options, employers will not have the workforce they need to stay in business.

Some of the ways the child care industry can be supported include fostering partnerships between employers and providers to offer scholarships or child care stipends as a benefit or leveraging stimulus dollars to help subsidize wages for child care professionals so they are paid at a competitive rate. As a short-term solution, we could replicate the governor’s Substitute Teacher Recruitment Grants to help fill staffing shortages. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and there are many variations to these two approaches that could work to fit with local needs and available resources.

Our supply of child care is shrinking, and families and employers are already feeling the effects. If we do not make a concerted effort now to address this issue, it will only get worse. Industry leaders and policymakers need to prioritize investments in child care and adopt solutions to keep providers’ doors open to address this crisis that is affecting Idaho families and our business community across the state.