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‘No real consensus’ among lawmakers on how to address Ohio child care crisis

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Ohio’s child care system, like the rest of the country’s, is widely considered to be in a state of crisis due to unaffordability and a staffing shortage.

A child plays a game during a day care session.
A child plays a game during a day care session. [Daniel Konik | Statehouse News Bureau]
And while bills to address that crisis have been introduced in more than one legislative session, few have seen much traction.

In late 2022, Ohio’s Joint Study Committee on Publicly Funded Child Care shared long-studied recommendations on how to better Ohio’s daycare and early learning systems. More than three years later, the GOP-majority legislature has yet to execute most of them, Children and Human Services Committee Rep. Andrea White (R-Kettering) said last week.

This last budget, lawmakers met federal requirements, but did not earmark additional money, according to progressive think tank Policy Matters Ohio.

“I want a whole lot more than I’m getting,” White said to a crowd during a Chamber of Commerce forum.

Rep. Nick Santucci (R-Niles) said child care is an issue lawmakers have to address eventually, but the majority caucus is a ways away.

“There’s no real consensus right now among our caucus on how to solve that,” Santucci said last week.

The vast majority of the federal funding allocations in House Bill 96, the biennial state budget, went to vouchers for families who fall outside the eligibility for subsidized Publicly Funded Child Care. But lawmakers declined to increase the income requirements to qualify for Publicly Funded Child Care.

HB 96 also earmarked $10 million to pilot a “tri-share” program, which creates cost-sharing between workers, their work and the state government. The idea, proponents said, was to further extend the possibility of affordable care to Ohio parents ineligible for public assistance.