Child care won at the ballot box

Leading up to the election, registered voters of all parties made it clear in polls that they believe the child care system is broken. And last Tuesday, they overwhelmingly supported local measures focused on supporting children, many of which increase local funding for child care.

These results underscore that Americans are passionate about the need for more help for kids and their families, especially in light of rising anxiety levels among children, more behavioral challenges, and, of course, a chronic lack of affordable, quality care. President-elect Donald Trump and vice president-elect JD Vance have hardly been proponents of increased funding for out-of-home care; yet the outcomes show that the issue is important to many voters — so important, in fact, that those voters are willing to take a financial hit to bring about change. 

Across the country, at least 10 ballot measures asked voters to approve tax increases to create revenue streams to fund child care, health programs and mental health services for young children. These measures largely passed. Click below to read through the proposals and see what voters approved.

More on child care and the election

This piece by my colleague Ariel Gilreath looked at how, even before the election, voters were open to raising taxes to support child care.

This story by Julie Bosman for The New York Times looked at how child care challenges took center stage for some voters.

Quick take

Child care is so costly that it pushes around 134,000 families into poverty each year. Rates are unaffordable for 43 percent of the 5.1 million families who pay for child care, according to a new report by the Center for American Progress.

More Early Childhood News

“How would a Trump presidency affect early childhood care in Southern California?” LAist

“How a new approach to early childhood could avert a ‘public policy catastrophe,’” EdSurge

“Voters approve lodging taxes for child care in City of Montrose, La Plata and Grand counties,” Chalkbeat

This story about child care taxes was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.