Opinion: California can learn from New Mexico’s universal child care

A YMCA of San Diego County child care activity File photo courtesy of the YMCA I was drawn to the child care profession because of my love for children I just love seeing their showing contentment hopeful faces watching them grow and learn and welcoming the trust and love they bring to us every day At the same time working in this field can be challenging Babies and young children require a great deal of love and care informed by expertise in early childhood expansion Low pay is challenging for providers and high costs are challenging for families including in California which has one of the highest average costs for child care in the country But selected states are looking for answers and I believe mine has ascertained one New Mexico is now expanding its free high-quality child care undertaking so that all families can access it It s the first of its kind in the nation and I hope other states will follow As of Nov all families in the state are eligible for universal no-cost child care New facilities will be built existing child care centers can apply for funds to improve their facilities and child care providers will receive pay boosts Prior to this our no-cost child care was available only to families with incomes up to of the poverty line and there were cost-prohibitive copay structures This meant that we had to turn away numerous needy families When parents and caretakers can t get child care they lose work educational opportunities and enrichment opportunities for their kids Or when families scrape to afford the exorbitant cost of child care the rest of their budget such as food housing healthcare and educational expenses suffers The purpose of this new no-cost universal child care initiative is many-fold to improve early childhood learning outcomes to aid parents ability to work to provide child care workers with a livable wage to increase the number and quality of child care centers and to reduce the cost burden to families and strengthen communities Families will save an average of per year with this project That s life-changing money for bulk working families The universal effort is funded by surplus revenues from New Mexico s oil and gas industry and a portion of the Land Grant Permanent Fund and the funds are paid directly to child care facilities I ve been a educator in the child care space for years and I ve witnessed firsthand the problems this new operation is meant to address I feel heartbroken each time we have to turn away a family who is desperate for care but can t afford it I see the positive impact our child care programs have on children including lifelong benefits for their physical and emotional well-being and for their future educational and workforce attainment Former students who are now adults regularly reach out to me and thank me for all the care they remember receiving I m humbled by each act of thoughtfulness from these now effective adults Of late one family for whom I taught all five of their children invited me to be the guest of honor at a graduation for one of the adult children I can t put into words how special and appreciated that made me feel Child care centers are pillars of the population providing an excellent start in life for our children freeing up parents and caretakers to earn a living and strengthening the economic activity and well-being of our communities It s a travesty that child care is prohibitively expensive and that child care workers are woefully underpaid in the rest of the country Taking care of our children and setting them up for success is the best thing we can do for our families our communities and our nation My hope is that all states will follow New Mexico s lead and enact a similar no-cost universal child care activity for all families Rita Bee is a long-time child care mentor in Gallup New Mexico This op-ed was distributed by http otherwords orgOtherWords org