Has providing child care assistance to low-income families “interfered” with the market, leading to shortages of infant care?
It is ludicrous to think that helping low-income families pay for the child care of their choice – including relatives, neighbors, family child care homes, or child care centers – “interferes” with the market. Helping families with some of their child care expenses expands the options available to parents by helping them afford the care they want for their children. Without such assistance, low income parents are limited to the inadequate choices they can afford on their own incomes (which often means leaving their children in poor quality and too often unsafe care) or are forced to go on welfare because they cannot afford to work and pay for child care. Working parents with infants face a particularly daunting challenge. Infant care is more costly, as babies need more intensive attention from adults – this means that a single adult can care for fewer infants than for older children, which in turn increases staffing costs. Many programs are less willing to serve babies for this reason,
