Broken system: Child care subsidies ensure low-quality, limit access

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Layoni Haskins, 3, had been asleep in the back seat of her mom’s car for almost an hour. In the strengthening morning light, Imari Haskins checked her youngest daughter’s sleeping form in the rearview mirror and decided to let the girl rest a while longer.

It was 8:38 a.m. on a weekday February morning and Haskins, 32, had pulled up in front of the duplex where she lives with Layoni and Jaslynn, 9. The family had just moved and now has to wake up earlier to make the half hour drive across town to Jaslynn’s elementary school, which is in their old neighborhood. This morning was especially rough because no one had fallen asleep until after 1 a.m. the night before.

Haskins, a single mom, works around 70 hours a week as a certified nursing assistant at a local elder care facility. She picks up as much overtime as she can, which often means working pretty late. Last night, it was 11:30 p.m. before she was able to pick up her sleeping girls from the woman who watches Layoni full-time and takes Jaslynn after school. By the time they’d woken up, climbed in their mom’s car and driven across town, both girls were “wired” and it took them a long time to settle down.

To find child care she could afford and that would accommodate her unpredictable work schedule, Haskins ended up with an unlicensed provider who charges about $600 a month. That’s nearly a quarter of the $31,000 she earns in annual take-home pay but still less than the price for most licensed care in Michigan. Like the majority of parents in her income bracket, Haskins gets no government help covering that cost…

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Photo Credit: Lillian Mongeau Hughes/The Hechinger Report