 100vw, 610px”/>Lincoln Irwin, then 4, of Essex Junction attends a press conference with his mother at Statehouse 2019 on a proposal to improve childcare access and affordability. File photo by Glenn Russell / VTDigger</p>
<p>This column is written by Madeleine May Kunin, a Democrat who was the 77th governor of Vermont and who served as governor from 1985 to 1991. She is the author of “Coming of Age, My Journey to the Eighties”.</p>
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No longer.
Today they are economic issues. The availability of safe and affordable childcare can determine whether or not a family will live in poverty.
As a freshman legislator, I attended an evening hearing in the basement of a Montpelier church. It was a snowy night and the room was full of mothers and children. They made their way to the capital because of a childcare crisis. Federal funding had been cut off and several daycare centers were about to close.
I remember a woman’s words. A baby could be heard crying in the background.
She went to the microphone and said, “I’m so nervous. I’m not used to speaking publicly but I have to tell you that if I lose my childcare I can’t go to work and if I lose my job I don’t know how to pay the rent or eat up lay the table. “
The crowd murmured their approval.
I decided that something had to be done. The next morning, the Vermont House discussed the household bill. I proposed an amendment to increase childcare funding. It was shot down immediately by Rep. Emory Hebard, chairman of the grant committee. Unfortunately, I had taken the money from the Autobahn Fund for childcare. If there was a sacred cow, it was the Autobahn Fund.
Emory told a popular Vermont story about repairing the front stairs. If that highway fund money wasn’t used to fix the steps every year, the steps would collapse.
Two years later I was called to the Committee on Budgets and made the same proposal. This time Emory supported me. His daughter had recently been divorced and was back to work. Suddenly child care was essential.
Fast forward to 2021. President Biden allocated $ 39 billion to childcare workers as part of the $ 1.9 trillion Covid relief bill. It is the law now.
The Vermont Legislature took it from there.
Recently a bill (H.171) was passed stating that no family receiving subsidized childcare would have to spend more than 10 percent of their gross annual income on childcare. The award was $ 12.4 million in state and proposed federal funds. The vote was an astonishing 146 to 1.
The bill flew by because lawmakers learned that women who couldn’t find childcare had to stay at home to care for their children. A fine luxury for some, poverty for most.
These so-called “women’s issues” are now essential economic issues that have found broad support. Access to childcare can make all the difference for a family whether they slide into poverty or cling to the middle class.
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