Affordable, High-Quality Child Care for All

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Date
2016-04-29T16:27:53Z
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Abstract
The first years of a child’s life are a vital period of rapid cognitive, social and emotional development. For working families, high quality early child care is a necessity that provides young children with support that prepares them for school and for life. However, affordable, high-quality child care is out of reach for low-income families. Additionally, child care providers earn low wages and are often not incentivized to develop their training credentials to increase quality assistance. The United States House of Representatives and Senate have an opportunity to consider legislation that would increase access and affordability to high-quality child care providers, while also driving a quality-based U.S. child care market. There is national support for improving the cost and accessibility of high-quality child care for low-income families. This paper highlights the benefits of proposing a High-Quality Child Care Tax Credit targeted to working families and eligible child care providers. With political support, the proposal would incentivize more affordable child care for working families and invest in the development of our future U.S. workforce.
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Keywords
cost, affordable, child care, quality
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