No matter who’s in control of the State House or governor’s office after Nov. 5, child care advocates who won historic state investments in families and providers last session are hoping to build on that momentum: making the state’s child care scholarship program more accessible, expanding training stipends and creating a more stable state funding stream to support future investments. They say increasing money for recruitment and retention is also critical.
But these asks will likely be harder to fulfill in the next state budget because lawmakers will no longer have millions in federal pandemic aid or revenue from the soon-to-expire income and dividends tax.
They’re making their case anyway.
“True priorities shine brightest during challenging times,” said Airole Warden, project manager for the Coös County Director Network and part of the Coös Coalition for Young Children and Families. “And this is definitely a moment for New Hampshire to reaffirm its commitment to child care.”
Calls to streamline scholarship program
The program is more generous than ever, with subsidies now available to higher-income families. A three-person family with an annual household income of up to about $89,000 could be eligible. To qualify, parents must be citizens, working, looking for work, or in a training program and their children must be under 13, or 18 if a child has a disability.
But just 4,348 children of the estimated 55,000 children who may be eligible are enrolled, according to Karen Hebert, with the state Division of Economic Stability.
Jackie Cowell, executive director of Early Learning NH, called that a problem. She handed out 40 to 50 brochures about the scholarship to business leaders at a recent event. “Not one of them heard of it,” she said. She’d like to see employers tell workers about the program as part of their onboarding for new hires.
“Some (families) will save $25,000 a year for their two kids,” she said. “That’s a mortgage payment.”
Hebert said the department is stepping up promotion of the scholarship program but has always seen fewer people enroll than are eligible. She said the department is also aware of concerns about the complexity of the application process, which takes a minimum of 45 minutes to complete and requires multiple financial documents.
In a recent webinar with providers and parents hosted by New Futures, multiple providers said even they struggle to help parents through the process.
Kitty Larochelle, director of The Growing Years in Manchester, cited two other frustrations.
Twenty-six of her students use the scholarship, and it takes her 35 clicks per child to record weekly attendance, a time-consuming task for a director with an already full plate, she said. And eligibility determinations are sometimes taking weeks, she said, which means a family must pay for child care while waiting or she has to carry the cost and hope she gets reimbursed by the state.
One family had been waiting about two weeks when NHPR spoke with Larochelle last week. “They have two kids who really need it and they are currently paying (the full cost,)” she said. “And it’s a struggle for that family.”
Her message for the next Legislature and governor? “I think everybody thinks the pandemic is over and what was going on with child care is solved,” she said. “We’ve kind of lost the messaging of us being the workforce behind the workforce.”
Stabilizing state funding
Improving the scholarship program and addressing other gaps in New Hampshire’s childcare system will likely require ongoing state investment.
Among the child care advocates interviewed, permanent funding for increased compensation and improvements to the child care scholarship were top priorities. The latter includes ensuring far more families use it.
Herbert said the Department of Health and Human Services has included $15 million in its two-year budget request to maintain compensation enhancements for workers. Though advocates would like to see that amount doubled, maintaining that investment is critical, they said, to holding onto workers who can make more in neighboring states.
Cora-Lynn Hoppe, executive director of the Rochester Child Care Center, used the first round of funding, which arrived in August, to give workers bonuses ranging from $500 to $1,500. “I have nothing to give again” without ongoing state investments, she said.
Both gubernatorial candidates, Republican Kelly Ayotte and Democrat Joyce Craig, have said solving the child care crisis would be a priority, though neither has committed to more state funding.
Those pushing for more consistent state support say public opinion is on their side. In an October survey of likely New Hampshire voters with children by the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, a majority of respondents from both parties said lawmakers should make addressing the cost and availability of child care a priority in the next budget. A majority also called child care unaffordable.
And, advocates know they are not alone in sounding the alarm. Employers have, too, including urging lawmakers last session to more generously support the child care system.
In a survey of business leaders released this week, Saint Anselm College reported that 68% of respondents said the lack of child care options will limit their ability to attract and retain workers. And nearly 75% said expanding the state’s workforce is key for New Hampshire to compete economically with other states.
Marianne Barter, executive director of Merrimack Valley Day Care in Concord, translates the financial value of child care this way.
“For every person I hire, eight people can go to work. I mean, that’s phenomenal right?,” she said. “The economical value of that is huge.”
Barter pointed to a February analysis by the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute that found an average of 16,000 Granite Staters a month in 2023 said they were not in the workforce because they were caring for children who were not in school or daycare.
“Think of a world where a boulder is in the way of 16,000 people going to work,” said Barter, who also chairs the NH Child Care Advisory Council. “New Hampshire would find a way to move the boulder, right? And they would invest the money in moving the boulder. We are the boulder.”