Child care ratio increases are not the right answer for Iowa

Kudos to the state of Iowa and to The Gazette for elevating child care and its effect on the economy. Child care providers have a motto: “If I don’t work, you don’t work.”

Please move beyond increasing adult-to-child ratios as the first "fix" to our state's child care dilemma.

• Safety is the reason we have the current ratio system of children to adults.

• Preserving the workforce is a second reason we have the ratios we do. Increasing the adult-to-child ratio is like adding driving hours for long haul truckers. It can be done, but the safety and long-term health of the workforce suffers, and so does the bottom line. In this case, it is our children and their potential that suffer.

Child care workers are among the lowest paid essential workers in the nation and the state. We cannot ask more of these people if we are not willing to pay them a living wage, and we can’t ask families to foot the bill.

• Extend the same level of funding and professional support to early care that exists for public education. Subsidize.

Policymakers need to support our present and future economic growth. Let’s insist that policy decisions ensure quality child care for the families who drive our economy.

Mary F Lukas

Iowa City