Hillary Clinton Makes A Bold Pledge To Working Parents

Hillary Clinton is hugged by a young student at a KinderCare daycare center May 9, 2016 in Fairfax, Virginia. Clinton's campaign stops in Virginia today were a continuation of her "Breaking Down Barriers" tour highlighting her policies on affordable child care, paid family leave and health care. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)


Hillary Clinton Makes A Bold Pledge To Working Parents

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has frequently talked about the barriers facing working parents, and child care is a big one. “In lots of states it costs more to provide child care for infants and babies and toddlers than it does to pay tuition to go to college,” she said at a campaign event in December. “For most working parents, that is just absolutely beyond reach…. We have to help do a better job supporting families.”

On Tuesday, she’ll get a lot more specific about how she would actually help them. At an event focused on child care, Clinton will pledge that if she were president, under her administration the government would ensure that no family pays more than 10 percent of its income on child care. The promise would extend to all families of all income levels — not just low-income ones but middle-class ones as well — and would involve “substantial” federal spending mixed with new tax breaks. Her campaign has yet to offer details about exactly how it would cap expenses or how much it would cost the government.



(Melina Mara/The Washington Post)


While Clinton hasn’t yet put forward many details, her call to cap costs is one of the more dramatic proposals out there. Both she and President Obama have called for universal preschool, which would give parents an affordable place to leave their children ages three and up. At younger ages, Obama has proposed increasing the child tax credit, but not nearly enough to make a serious dent in the sky-high costs.

Clinton will also put forward a plan on Tuesday to deal with the other side of the equation: pay for child care providers. Median wages for child care workers are just $10.31 across the country, nearly a quarter less than what they could make in other jobs, and nearly 15 percent live in poverty. To address that issue, she will look at increasing pay for workers through what she’s calling the Respect And Increased Salaries for Early Childhood Educators, or RAISE initiative, based on pilot programs in several states in order to improve retention and providers’ qualifications.



(Win McNamee/Getty Images North America)


The most detailed part of her plan so far is slightly different: she will propose doubling federal funding for the “home visiting” program, formally known as the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Initiative, in which nurses or social workers visit low-income parents in their homes during pregnancy and a child’s infancy. Research has found that the program reduces the frequency of child abuse and neglect, prenatal smoking among mothers, and it improves cognitive outcomes for children.

Ann O'Leary ?@Ann_OLeary 18h18 hours ago
@HillaryClinton=big hit w/new friends @KinderCare. Childcare subsidies make quality care possible.

LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA: Hillary Clinton visited a Stone Ridge coffee shop on Monday, May 9 to talk with a small group of young families about work-life balance issues.

At Mug n' Muffin, Clinton answered questions about the "cultural, economic and structural challenges" of work/life balance that she said she has also heard from women during her campaign, including about childcare needs, family leave policies, affordable health care, and the continuing issue of some employers not paying equal pay for equal work for women and men.

Ann O'Leary ?@Ann_OLeary 20h20 hours ago
Great Q on equal pay. @HillaryClinton =need to remember it's not just less salary, it's also less towards retirement

For the first question, a Loudoun mother asked why Loudoun County doesn't have universal full day kindergarten. Loudoun Board of Supervisors member Koran Saines, who was sitting next to Clinton, explained that Loudoun County is "on track" for getting universal full-day kindergarten and that it should be available in 75 percent of schools in the county by next year.

Clinton commented on the importance of early childhood education and how full-day kindergarten needs to be part of it. She also addressed the high cost of quality childcare in Loudoun County, as well as in many other places nationwide.

Ann O'Leary ?@Ann_OLeary
Very emotional question about how to prepare kids for "unexpected visitors." @HillaryClinton fighting gun violence

Hillary Clinton ?@HillaryClinton 21h21 hours ago
Live on Facebook: Hillary leads a roundtable discussion with working families in Virginia. Watch ? http://hrc.io/1WW2rkX