Biden’s Daycare Plan Is Bad for Families
May 3, 2021
In his first address to Congress, President Biden proposed spending an extra $225 billion on child care. That’s on top of the $40 billion the administration is already spending as part of the “bailout” of child-care providers in Mr. Biden’s American Rescue Plan, and the $10.3 billion the federal government normally spends on child-care subsidies. The new plan, billed as an effort to help low- and moderate-income families, would put America on a path to becoming a society where the state assumes much of the care of young children. Many Republicans have balked at the cost of Mr. Biden’s spending blowout, but in this case the substance matters more than the money. A dramatic expansion of child care is a bad deal for American parents. More important, it’s a bad deal for American children.
Criticism of the Biden approach invites immediate scorn from certain elite quarters. Brown University economist Emily Oster argues that criticisms of Mr. Biden’s proposal are “not supported by the data. . . . Child care is not ‘terrible for children.’ ” The essential point isn’t that “child care” is bad for kids, however, but that a federal push to get droves of children into daycare is. These are two different things, raising radically different questions. For example, how can we ensure safe facilities and capable caregivers for millions of additional children moved abruptly into child care? Hardly a trivial logistical challenge.
