Seeking to build grassroots support for a plan that would help pay for children to attend preschool, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, toured Cedarbrook Early Learning Center in Port Hadlock and spoke with three local parents about the challenges they faced.

“The reason I’m doing this is because everywhere I go, I talk to people about what is impacting their financial security at home, how they can earn to their full potential, and how they can work and have kids,” Murray said.

“And the biggest barrier I hear everywhere is ‘child care,’” Murray said.

“We can no longer ignore this critical part of every family. We need a bold, big new plan and we need to start working to get support. So I have written legislation to address child care that is very broad-based,” Murray said.

Her plan – called the Child Care for Working Families Act – would ensure no family under 150 percent of the state median income pays more than 7 percent of their income for child care.

The bill would also support universal access to high-quality preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds, and also improve compensation and training for the child care workforce.

Murray said she’s heard from Washington families about the challenges of juggling their own jobs and their children’s education. Common complaints, she said, include workers who have to quit their jobs because child care costs are higher than their mortgage, or that some families have to choose between putting food on the table and paying for child care.

“What we do for our kids in early childhood education makes a huge impact on them later in life,” Murray said.

RISING COSTS

Julia Fulton, director at Cedarbrook, knows the challenges of child care firsthand. Her oldest son attended Cedarbrook, but when her second child was born, she couldn’t afford to have both children attend and it didn’t make financial sense for her to work with two children. So she started a home-based accounting business, later returning to Cedarbrook as director.

Fulton said she loves the work and isn’t at Cedarbrook for the money. She said Cedarbrook helped more than 60 families, with half of the children who apply at Cedarbrook being recipients of aid from the state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS).

“We do a lot of support for those families,” Fulton said. “And some families, they can’t afford the child care, and it’s tough. And we do what we can because child care costs are super expensive. But we barely make it. We just pay our bills and our teachers, and that’s it. And our teachers don’t make barely anything.”

Increasing compensation for child care workers was needed to reduce worker turnover.

The rising costs for child care have priced some families out, and at the same time, some families are getting less coverage from DSHS than before.

“A lot of people are losing DSHS right now, and it’s tough because these families don’t have anywhere else to go,” Fulton said.

Another problem, Fulton said, is that parents are exhausted and don’t have time to read to their children.

“They know their kids get to read here, that their kids are learning here, that they’re being fed full meals,” Fulton said of Cedarbrook.

She said those kids felt loved and cared for at Cedarbrook.

CHILD CARE A ‘NECESSITY’

Another parent, Sarah Dexter, said she made a difficult decision to leave her daughter’s father four years ago and moved to Port Townsend. The $400 monthly Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) check didn’t get her very far, leading her to realize that “child care isn’t a choice anymore. It’s a necessity.”

“You can’t choose to stay home anymore. You need to survive. We have to work, there’s no choice,” Dexter said.

Her daughter, who is 5 years old, loves Cedarbrook, Dexter said.

The structured education at Cedarbrook appealed to Dexter, but she struggled with paying for it.

“The hard part was finding a during-the-week job because a lot of the jobs in the area are requiring that we work on the weekends.”

Babysitters expected $15 an hour and “we don’t even make that much. There’s no point in even finding a job at that point,” Dexter said.

Dexter now works as resident manager for a low-income apartment complex.

“I see every one of my families [at the apartment complex] struggle as I’m trying to certify them for low-income and they’re trying to figure out how to get jobs so they can get out. Child care comes into play with everybody I work with, including myself.

“I would love to see places like this funded more to help us low-income and middle-class families.

“At least I know my daughter is getting meals here, two meals – breakfast and lunch. [And] she gets to play with other kids. She’s getting an education through preschool that I couldn’t [give her]. I don’t have time to sit down with her and teach her how to read. I just don’t have time, being a single mother. It’s hard,” Dexter said.

Murray said it was crucial for kids like Dexter’s to be able to get into kindergarten and be ready to learn.

“What I hear from kindergarten teachers is so many of their kids [don’t have] the early learning that you’re doing here,” Murray said, adding that some kindergarten teachers told her they are struggling to help kids who have fallen behind to catch up.

63 PERCENT READY

Another parent, Candace Mangold, said her two boys – Holland, 3, and Halen, 5 – attended last year. Halen had a thyroid tumor that required multiple surgeries to remove, stressing the family’s finances.

“$100,000 was what we ended up having to pay out of pocket,” Mangold said of the hospital bills. Mangold had to quit her commuter job in Seattle.

“When we moved out here last year, I took a job waiting tables, which I hadn’t done since high school,” Mangold said. But despite her paycheck and tips, paying more than $500 per month for child care meant “I brought home no money,” Mangold said.

“We couldn’t do it … I had to take the boys out and I homeschooled for a bit,” Mangold said.

“We don’t qualify for Head Start. We’re middle income. We own a home. My husband works. We should be able to do this, but when you start to get into the $500-$600 range a month, you’re priced out.

“I understand we’re paying to supplement for those that can’t afford to pay, but we’re getting to the point where we can’t even afford to pay. When middle-income folks are looking at food banks as options because we don’t get any subsidies … it’s a challenge,” Mangold said.

Early learning for children is essential, Mangold said. She said she attended a PTA meeting recently where she learned 63 percent of students are ready for kindergarten.

“Sixty-three percent. I was like, ’Is that good for you guys? Is that, like ‘Yay’’? … it should be a lot higher. But the teachers were like, ‘It’s a small town.’

“Sixty-three percent seems a little low to me. It’s unfortunate that there aren’t enough resources in this community to make that work,” Mangold said.

Mangold said she also learned at the PTA meeting that “tardiness is a big deal.”

“I said, ‘Can you define that for me? Is that three minutes late, five minutes late?’ ‘Oh no, families are coming in at 10 or 11.’ You know why? Because we have over 100 children in our school district that are homeless. They are living in the jungle out by the mill. They are living in the Safeway parking lot. We have closed our showers down at the marina for them, so they are looking for places to get clean. They are looking for places to get food. And they are struggling to get their children to school on time. That is unacceptable ... this is not OK,’” Mangold said.

BUILDING SUPPORT

Murray said early education would pay off in spades in the long run.

“All of the research shows us that if kids get the skills you’re teaching them here [at Cedarbrook], they will be more successful later, they will be more economically secure as adults. They’ll have jobs with skills. They won’t end up in jail costing all of us and repeating a cycle. It’s just amazing that our country does not really recognize and invest in that,” Murray said.

Murray said the bill currently has 27 cosponsors.