Starting a family and having children should not be a luxury for the wealthiest Americans. It should be something all Americans have the opportunity to achieve, and to make that possible, we need to make childcare easy to find, affordable, and treated like the necessity it is.
I’m proposing a $10 a day cap, per child, on out-of-pocket childcare costs for families earning less than $250,000 per year.
Every Maine family in rural, urban, and mid-size communities deserves access to affordable childcare. The federal government should provide grants to qualifying childcare providers, allowing them to guarantee this new rate and ensure that everyone can afford the childcare they need. Our policy would include stipends for alternative caregiving models, including stay-at-home parents, and compensation for relatives providing childcare.
A mistake of the last few decades is not recognizing that early childcare work is a critically important profession that deserves respect, stability, and fair compensation. Childcare work should be a well-trained, well-compensated job that is realistic and attractive.