As the November election approaches, inflation ranks as a top issue for voters beset by a yearslong surge in the price of essentials like gasoline, flour and housing. But less attention has been paid to the skyrocketing cost of child care, which strains the monthly budget for millions of families.
The affordability crisis in child care threatens not only strapped families but also a vast network of facilities struggling to stay in business as well as the nation’s overall economic strength, which depends on the capacity of parents to work outside the home, experts told ABC News.
Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C., differ significantly on the issue, amplifying the stakes of this year’s election, Rachel VanSickle-Ward, a professor of political studies at Pitzer College, told ABC News.
“Based on who wins in November — both at the presidential level and at the congressional level — it is make it or break it for child care policy,” VanSickle-War said.
Families in the U.S. spend an average of $11,000 on child care each year, which amounts to a nearly 250% increase since 1991, the advocacy group Child Care Aware found in 2022.
In recent months, the rise in prices has accelerated. The cost of child care climbed 4.1% over the year ending in April, outpacing the overall inflation rate by more than half a percentage point, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows.
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