Putting kids first
Being a parent is exhausting in the best of times. The pandemic has placed a whole new levels of anxiety, pressure, and unpredictability on families. This is especially true of families with children under five. I want to share my story of parenting during the pandemic and offer some tangible, realistic policies that Oregon could adopt to better serve children. Oregon has high rates of child poverty, one of the lowest rates of child literacy, the 47th high school graduation rate, the and one of the shortest school years in the country. We have to better serve the next generation.
My family is privileged in many ways. My partner and I both have stable jobs, we are healthy, and we have incredible extended family support. Raising my two boys, who are now 5 and 4, during the pandemic has overwhelmed everything we do. And we are the lucky ones.
I want to provide insight into what the last year has looked like to give those of you without young children an idea of what it is like to parent during a pandemic. We are blessed that no one in our immediate family has tested positive for COVID. We are all vaccinated, except our little guy who is still not eligible due to his age, and have taken every precaution to follow CDC and OHA guidelines.
In the last six months, my children have been in quarantine three times. That is thirty days of spontaneous isolation. Neither child is old enough to be left on their own. Our public school district has also adjusted the calendar on multiple occasions by cutting school days (1 time) and shifting to a two-hour early release (5 times). The district did this twice with less than a week’s notice. My partners work schedule is made a year in advance. The expectation is that families will figure it out in less than a week without any recognition that 1) Oregon has a terrible childcare infrastructure 2) this infrastructure is under more pressure and limitations during the pandemic due to increased regulations around safety and 3) most childcare centers require months in advance to enroll. So, some school districts adjusted schedules quickly, behind closed doors, without public input. Sigh.
There is broad recognition in the educational research community that the pandemic has negatively impacted students’ academic, social, and mental well-being. It has exacerbated inequities, and has taken a bigger tole from families of color and families living in poverty. Now is the time to expand services and invest in kids. Here are five tangible policies to improve conditions for kids.
Permanently expand the childcare tax credit. HB 4157 provided one-time $600 payment to families who earned the earned income tax credit (EITC) in 2022. Representative Valderrama requested the bill, and made a strong argument that expanding the EITC will help food and housing insecure families. The expansion will support more than 240,000 low income workers in Oregon, and uses the 2020 tax year for eligibility. As Ezra Klein reports, a study of the federal expansion of the child tax credit found that it pulled 3.4 million children above the poverty line. Further, additional research finds that the expansion had no impact on employment or participation in the workforce. In sum, the expansion of the federal child tax credit lifted millions of children out of poverty, reduced child hunger, and had no significant downside. I am glad Oregon expanded the EITC for one year. This should be expanded permanently.
Extend the school year for all kids. Oregon received $1.1. billion in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund III through the American Rescue Plan from the federal government and $150 million from the State to spend on summer learning programs for students. This follows $325 million in state funding for summer programing in 2021. While investing in the highest need students makes sense, there is broad recognition that all students had social, emotional and academic challenges during the pandemic. Students were tasked with virtual schooling, limitations on social events, and sporadic sports schedules during the pandemic. Expanding the school year would make up for some of the lost time.
Stabilize the school calendar. Teachers deserve better working conditions including reasonable class sizes, quality pay and benefits, and safe environments. All of these things can be done without quickly shifting the calendar. Shifting the calendar puts an inordinate amount of pressure on working families, single parents, and those living in poverty. It increases instability and anxiety in an already unstable time. Any adjustments to the calendar should include a public discussion with the community, and should only be done in emergencies.
Publicly subsidize childcare. A child care desert is defined as a community with more than three children for every regulated child care slot. Using this definition, researchers at Oregon State University found that all 36 counties in Oregon are child care deserts. The average cost of childcare in Oregon is $13,616 per child. This extraordinary cost is a stress on working families and disproportionately impacts women. Throughout the pandemic, women have quit the labor force at higher rates than men. 46% of the women who left the workforce were Hispanic or Black. Policymakers should take direct actions to invest in childcare by providing additional publicly subsidized seats.
The pandemic has taken a tremendous toll on working families and on children. I hope elected officials look to these tangible, realistic policies to build the future our children deserve. We can, and should, do better.
Andy Saultz
To look forward to:
· The third edition of Thebeerchaser’s advice for gubernatorial candidates, this time for Tobias Read.
From Jenn Schuberth and John Urang
To Read:
· Jim Moore outlines why the first election in Oregon’s new congressional district is anything but typical here.
· Aaron Pina gives an update on Portland’s Charter Commission here.
To Do:
· Read the latest version of the Liftoff
· Share The Oregon Way with three friends
"Kids Playing" by Duane Storey is marked with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Thanks Andy for a powerful piece. The lack of resources for young children in Oregon is a long standing problem. Two community based programs that put free books in young children's homes are Reach Out and Read and Dolly Parton Imagination Library. Data show that children who participate have more success with literacy in Kindergarten.
Sorry, don't know how to make these links live, but here they are:
https://reachoutandread.org https://imaginationlibrary.com
I grew up with two brothers and my parents worked. Like most in the 60’s they had no extra money but we got on just fine. No handouts, no money from other taxpayers, and no complaining. Now we have created an entitlement system that is destroying the country. Teachers worked hard back then, most parents were accountable, and no one expected anything. What happened.