(Undated)– A new report says Iowa has created more than 200 new child-care providers in the state, which is among the nation’s leaders in working parents who need it. The jobs were created with pandemic relief funds and bolstered by money from local businesses. Iowa set aside 3-million dollars in COVID relief aid to create the Child Care Solutions Fund, which established more providers and is making money available to pay them. Businesses in the seven Iowa communities that took part in the program kicked in another 1-point-4 million dollars to increase the notoriously low wages and improve health benefits. Common Good Iowa’s Sheila Hansen says the investments will make a big difference on the ground…
While the pilot program was created with pandemic relief money, the report says expanding it statewide would cost Iowa about 28-million dollars a year. Hansen thinks it would be a wise investment, in a state that desperately needs more child-care services…
The report estimates if every mother with kids had access to child care and wanted to work, at least 150-thousand more women would join the Iowa labor force.
(Courtesy Iowa News Service)
