A business case for investment in child care
June 16, 2021
I was invited recently to be a panelist for a talk put on by the Economic Alliance of Snohomish County as part of the group’s Coffee Chat program. This particular dialogue was on child care — and, more specifically, on how access to child care can impact the success and growth of Whatcom County businesses.
To my surprise, the group brought me in as an “expert” for the panel – their words, not mine. Given that I don’t have children, child care certainly is an arena in which I had (and still have) a lot of listening and learning to do.
This learning adventure has had many layers over the past few years.
Housing is the wave that is here. Child care is the bigger wave that is coming.
The first robust conversation I recall having on the topic was during one of our Leadership Whatcom session days a few years ago. Ray Deck of Skookum Kids described the problem in terms of waves hitting us. Like with the current housing crisis, we have issues with both affordability and availability when it comes to child care, and discussions are ongoing as to the long-term societal impacts of the crisis.
The real experts: the Opportunity Council’s Child Care Aware team
About a year after the Leadership Whatcom conversation, the Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce was approached by the Opportunity Council to help its Child Aware Team solicit feedback from the business community about the impacts of child care on the local workforce. The feedback was telling: 88% of Whatcom County business owners reported that barriers to child care were affecting their employees’ work performance.
That survey led to the North County Employer Consortium and, more recently, to the Chamber’s partnership with the Center for Retention & Expansion of Child Care – NW (C-RECC NW), which is working on stabilizing, retaining and expanding child care capacity — along with the number of child care businesses — throughout Whatcom, Island, San Juan, Skagit and Snohomish counties.
Access to quality child care is an investment in the future
Even before the pandemic, workforce issues were a major problem in Whatcom County. There weren’t enough workers, and those who could be found lacked many important soft skills, including the interpersonal and behavioral abilities that would help them succeed at work. This remains a problem today.
However, quality early childhood education can help improve soft skills, better setting our youth up for success in the future.
The business case for child care is simple: Child care allows the workforce to be employed. The business case for quality child care is also simple, and yet two-fold: It invests in the future workforce by ensuring quality education in the youngest members of our community, and it provides needed mental development opportunities that help people work well with others, practice compassion with others and learn critical thinking skills, among a host of other positive cognitive outcomes.
But it is expensive
Despite that more people are working from home instead of from the office, the need for quality child care hasn’t lessened.
Yes, there are some regulatory concerns that need advocacy. Yes, our solutions must result in quality early childhood education and not just day care or babysitting. Yes, child care is expensive.
However, few good investments are cheap and easy.
Conversations are ongoing right now at the Bellingham City Council about whether to spend most of the funds received through the American Rescue Plan Act on improvements to child care. To help avoid high drop-out rates and reduce the need to spend money on remedial education, homeless services and criminal justice — to name just a few — it makes sense to me to invest in quality child care now.
This investment is truly for both now and for the future.
-Guy Occhiogrosso
President/CEO
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash