Elizabeth Warren Proposes Universal Child Care.


Senator Elizabeth Warren’s plan proposes a network of child care centers that would be free to families earning less than two times the federal poverty level.Travis Dove for The New York Times


NY TIMES

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts introduced a universal child care proposal on Tuesday, the latest in a series of ambitious policy ideas from Democratic presidential candidates.

Ms. Warren’s plan, the Universal Child Care and Early Learning Act, would create a network of government-funded care centers based partly on the existing Head Start network, with employees paid comparably to public-school teachers. Families earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level would be able to send their children to these centers for free. Families earning more than that would be charged on a sliding scale, up to a maximum of 7 percent of their income.
The plan would be funded by Ms. Warren’s proposed wealth tax on households with more than $50 million in assets, her campaign said.

“The guarantee is about what each of our children is entitled to,” Ms. Warren said at a campaign rally in Los Angeles on Monday, announcing her plans to introduce the bill. “Not just the children of the wealthy, not just the children of the well-connected, but every one of our children is entitled to good child care.”

Ms. Warren framed the issue broadly: not just as a matter of access to education, but as a means to promote economic growth and address gender inequality in the work force. The cost of child care has “weighed heavily on female labor force participation,” because some women who can’t afford it are unable to work outside the home as a result. In a post on Medium on Tuesday, Ms. Warren repeated a personal story she has often told before: that if it hadn’t been for her Aunt Bee, who helped care for her children, she would have had to quit her job as a law school instructor.