Progressives in Iowa push for affordable child care policies

DES MOINES - Progressive advocates want presidential candidates to talk more about policies that help working families get affordable child care.

Former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa joined others at a news conference Tuesday calling on presidential candidates to detail policies that would help families deal with the rising cost of child care.

'Child care is completely out of reach for too many American families, and for too many children of low income, it means their growth and their development are stunted from the start,” Harkin said.

'Too many children are just being denied getting up to that starting line. It's hurting them, it's hurting the economic well-being of their families, and, quite frankly, it's hurting the economic well-being of America.”

In Iowa, infant care costs an average of $9,485 per year, according to Child Care Aware of America, a non-profit advocacy organization. The cost for one child can range from 8 percent to 22 percent of a married family's annual income, or from 27 percent to 74 percent of a single parent's annual income, according to the organization.

'It's that kind of squeeze I think a lot of families are facing,” said Neera Tanden, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank and advocacy organization. 'Yet we do very little as a country to help those families struggling with those costs.”

In Iowa, 70 percent of likely caucusgoers said they think child care is too expensive and out of reach financially for working and middle-class families, according to a poll commissioned by the Center for American Progress and conducted by liberal-leaning Public Policy Polling.

The poll also found that 69 percent of likely caucusgoers support workplace policies that include provisions for child care and paid family leave.

'We know the statistics. We know the programs that are working. We're just not taking the time and money and effort to implement them,” said Tanya Keith, a Des Moines mother of three advocating for affordable child care policies in partnership with Progress Iowa.