The Childcare Shortage
Funding
The city continues to offer funding via direct stipends, educational stipends, and cost waivers for items like annual inspection costs to childcare providers, with the goal of making it easier for providers to offer their staff a more attractive wage and limit the high amount of turnover and staffing shortages this industry faces. I fully support this funding, and am excited that via a State grant we’ve been able to double the amount for the next two years, but I worry that the very finite pool of our resources won’t be enough to fully close those gaps.
This is an example of a Statewide issue where I would hope for more direct involvement at the State level given the differences in our available resources. I’m pleased that our deputy city manager is currently a member of the Governor’s task force on childcare, and can provide input and influence based on Juneau’s experience.
If families can’t find childcare, they won’t move to town, and they won’t stay in town. If parents spend more on childcare than they make in wages, they won’t enter or stay in the workforce. For these reasons we’ve got to continue to work on this issue to address it in new ways to complement the work we’re already doing. I know it’s a top three issue for me, and I’m committed to finding ways for our community to increase options.
A challenge to increasing childcare options are the licensing requirements when it comes to space and amenities. We can help by providing advocacy at the State level to reduce those licensing burdens that may be harming more than helping. I also see an opportunity for the city to assist by partnering to allow daycare operations in unused school spaces. It’s a way for us to turn our declining enrollment into a silver lining. I would like to see new leases and development spaces looked at through this lens as well, incorporating some square footage for on-site childcare.