Childcare costs in America will make any parent’s eye twitch. A 2020 report found that the national average annual cost of childcare was $10,174 per child. That’s more than 10% of the median dual income for a married couple and more than 35% of the median income for a single parent. And half of Americans are paying more than that — sometimes much more.
With childcare costs so astronomically high (and many salaries so low), some families are completely stuck in a cycle of living paycheck to paycheck, working two or three jobs, and counting down the days until kids can head off to public school.
With the 2024 Presidential election looming, vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance has been on the campaign trail, making appearances and talking about policy.
At a Turning Point Action event in Mesa, Arizona, conservative talking head (and problematic human) Charlie Kirk asked Vance how to lower the cost of childcare. Vance’s answer was so completely tactless and with zero awareness of today’s parenting landscape.
J.D. Vance thinks the high cost of daycare can be solved with one easy solution: Just ask your family for help!
“One of the ways that you might be able to relieve a little bit of pressure on people who are paying so much for daycare is, maybe grandma and grandpa wants to help out a little bit more. Or maybe there’s an aunt or uncle that wants to help out a little bit more,” Vance said.
“If that happens, you relieve some of the pressure on all of the resources that we’re spending on daycare.”
For parents who don’t have relatives who will happily babysit for free, Vance said that more people have to get training in childcare and that certain certifications have “nothing to do with taking care of kids.”
He implied (with absolutely no factual basis) that childcare specialists were forced to have a “six-year college degree” and thus had to charge more for daycare.
First off, free help from family is not a policy solution that anyone can put into law. Is this a joke? What if Grandma and Grandpa live five states away? What if they’re ill? What if they’re dead? What if they’re still working full-time because no one can retire anymore?
Second, in what world do people think that childcare certifications require advanced college degrees?
While Washington, D.C., has a degree requirement, it’s only for a two-year associate’s degree. In Illinois, aspiring preschool teachers will need a minimum of a bachelor’s degree. This false narrative that preschool teachers need “six-year degrees” is just another dangerous and untrue statement from a dude who has either totally wrong or completely archaic views on what’s actually going on in this country.
And on that note, is the guy who doesn’t trust teachers at all to do their job in the classroom seriously suggesting that preschools just hire randos who “love kids”? What is happening here?
Also, if we really want to get into it, J.D. Vance probably doesn’t even give a sh*t about childcare costs. He didn’t even vote when it came to a bill that expanded child tax credit for 16 million low-income families. That’s right. He couldn’t even bother to show up to work to vote on critical legislation to expand the child tax credit to help Americans with children make ends meet.
In fact, he called universal daycare a “class war against normal people.” YIKES!
There seems to be a pattern of totally missing the mark with Vance.
In a 2021 audio clip, the Ohio senator went after teachers who do not have children, noting that child-free teachers “disturbed” and “disoriented” him. In 2020, the Ohio senator agreed with a podcast host who said having grandmothers help raise children is “the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female.” He also faced heavy criticism for insulting “childless cat ladies.”
