Daycare front and center in state legislator's efforts
Minnesota State Rep. Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn fighting for parents and daycare workers
(State Rep. Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn)
Some people have to get on a waitlist for daycare as soon as they get pregnant. That’s what happened to a friend of Minnesota State Rep. Carlie Kotyza-Witthuhn.
“The first person that she called after she took the pregnancy test was their childcare provider to say, ‘Do you have an opening in nine months or roughly nine months?’ whenever she found out she was pregnant,” Kotyza-Witthuhn said. “So that's, that's really tricky for folks.”
Kotyza-Witthuhn has pushed for greater access to childcare for her constituents in the state through various pieces of legislation, including the Great Start Tax Credit that awards early learning scholarships to more than 20,000 vulnerable infants, toddlers, and preschoolers – those from low-income families, in foster care, homeless or highly mobile, or with a teen or incarcerated parent.
“There's certainly a lack of available childcare, particularly in rural Minnesota, (where it) is higher than they have available,” Kotyza-Witthuhn said.
The plan also increases reimbursement rates for the Child Care Assistance Program to the 75th percentile of current market rates, the federal standard. This represents a significant increase from current rates, which are set at the 40th percentile for infants and toddlers and the 30th percentile for older children. Thanks to this increase, more than 30,000 children from low-income families will be able to access care, according to a news release pertaining to the bill.
Currently, there is an employee shortage in early child daycare.
“So it's a workforce issue and a childcare issue,” Kotyza-Witthuhn said. “Of course, the childcare workforce is the backbone of everybody else's workforce.”
Democrats are generally more supportive of a universal 24-hour daycare program, which is something that feminists in the 1970s fought for. At the time, many argued for it on the ground that it would reduce the number of people on welfare and empower working mothers. It also permitted men and women to check their children into one center at any time of day that was convenient for them. Kotyza-Witthuhn believes the perception now is more receptive to the idea than it was then.
“I think as folks continue to realize what the needs are, particularly for the folks that help the world go round– the frontline workers, the folks who are working different hours of the day–which was certainly called out to us over the last two years, that it may something that we could shift toward because certainly, the need is there.”