Rocky Mountain News - Polis Unveils Child-Care Plan

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Rocky Mountain News - Polis Unveils Child-Care Plan

Jared Polis, who is running for the 2nd Congressional District seat, unveiled a plan Thursday that would help working families pay for child care.

"There is a crisis in child care today," said Polis, who announced his plan at a meeting with Boulder employees of Google, a company that has been in the news after struggling with child-care costs.

"It is time to be bold. It's not only poor families that struggle with the cost of child care but middle-class families, too."

He noted that paying for child care is a major burden on family incomes across the board.

"The current patchwork of complex rules and inadequate assistance fails working families," he said. "We must revamp the system entirely and meaningfully strengthen the federal share."

His plan consist of several steps:

* Make the federal Dependent Care Tax Credit refundable and expand that credit for families using it toward high quality child development care.

* Replace the current block grant program with a federal guarantee for all families with incomes under $40,000 that need child care to enter or keep employment, and a sliding scale of support for middle-income families.

* Provide funding incentives for states to raise educational qualifications and compensation of child care workers.

A comparable plan proposed by Mark Greenberg with the Center for American Progress estimates that the tax credit expansions would cost $5 billion annually, and the subsidy and quality expansions would cost about $18 billion.

Polis believes that by ending the war in Iraq quickly and rolling back the worst provisions of the Bush 2001 tax cuts, the country can more than afford these investments.

Polis' rivals in the primary race for the 2nd Congressional District had mixed reactions to the plan.

Mary Alice Mandarich, campaign manager for Joan Fitz-Gerald, said that while child care is a major concern for many families, it is not the only one.

"Obviously, families in these tough economic times are facing a lot of economic decisions, and child care is obviously one of them," she said.

"Child care is one of the concerns. They're also worried about the price of food, the price of gas, clothing and keeping their jobs. They're worried about staying in their homes. There are a lot of things to be concerned about."

Lynea Hansen, campaign manager for Will Shafroth, stressed Shafroth's strength in addressing such issues.

"Will Shafroth is the only candidate in this race with a proven track record of bring people together and reaching across the aisle to solve these types of tough problems," she said.

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