How to Make Subsidized Childcare Work
Making childcare more affordable is an urgent need in the United States, and a policy that combines childcare subsidies with budget offsets elsewhere could gain bipartisan support in Congress, according to a new report from the Brookings Institution. Why the Federal Government Should Subsidize Childcare and How to Pay For It argues that affordable childcare holds great potential for bipartisan compromise since most low- and middle-income parents struggle to pay for childcare, and many solutions could be budget-neutral. The authors recommend $42 billion in childcare subsidies targeted to families at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty line, offset by a change in the federal tax deduction for charitable contributions.