The Kansas Reflector welcomes opinion pieces from writers who share our goal of widening the conversation about how public policies affect the day-to-day lives of people throughout our state. John Wilson is president of Kansas Action for Children.
On this day 140 years ago, 10,000 New York workers marched — unpaid — to recognize their contributions to the workforce and celebrate the first Labor Day. Today, most of us celebrate with parades, picnics, and spending extra time relaxing with our loved ones.
But tomorrow, we’ll go back to our jobs to provide for our families.
Many Kansas families are just a paycheck away from financial disaster. With only 3% of parents being unemployed in 2021, they are obviously doing their part. Yet for many, it’s not enough to get by. Nearly 97,000 Kansas kids live in poverty and 36,000 kids live in high-poverty areas, according to data just released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
The unfortunate reality today is that parents must work harder than ever due to stagnant wages, unaffordable health care, a worsening child care crisis and inflation rates that have hit the Midwest harder than other areas of the country.
There is a huge gap between what society expects parents to do and what our institutions do to support them — a truth revealed through health, education and economic indicators. Kansas Action for Children partnered with the Annie E. Casey Foundation on their annual KIDS COUNT Data Book, which gives insight on what areas we must improve upon to help every child thrive.
All parents know first-hand the struggle of finding child care, let alone care that is affordable. The Data Book shows that child care availability has been on a steady deadline for years, burdening parents and child care providers alike. If we want parents and caregivers to remain in the Kansas workforce, this is a problem we can’t afford to ignore.
The Kansas Legislature took a good first step this last session by expanding the employer child care tax credit to all Kansas businesses. With this action, employers can apply to receive a tax credit for helping employees cover the cost of child care or providing child care itself.
The Kansas Legislature took a good first step this last session by expanding the employer child care tax credit to all Kansas businesses. With this action, employers can apply to receive a tax credit for helping employees cover the cost of child care or providing child care itself.
But this isn’t enough. Policymakers must go further by using state and federal money to support a living wage for child care providers. They must expand access to programs that help parents pay for child care; enrollment in the child care assistance program has nearly halved in the last decade alone.
The earliest years of a child’s life are when parents need support the most, and those supports have an outsized impact on children. Children are born ready to absorb information and experience from the people and places around them. In addition to the home, high-quality early learning programs are among the best places for this to happen.
According to the KIDS COUNT report, 54% of 3- and 4-year-olds are not enrolled in preschool. Research shows that the more support a child receives in their early years, the more prepared they’ll be for learning in K-12 and beyond. Lawmakers must expand funding so all young kids can attend preschool before entering kindergarten.
Lastly, despite a vast majority of parents being employed, it is not translating into better financial security needed for health care, enough food for every meal, and living above the poverty line. This is where our leaders come in, so all parents can have some breathing room.
We could expand eligibility for KanCare (the state’s Medicaid program) and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to help the 38,000 Kansas kids currently without health coverage. But our leaders haven’t done so.
We could make sure that all Kansans, especially the 1 in 6 Kansas kids who are experiencing food insecurity, have enough to eat for every meal. But the Legislature continues to place extreme restrictions on the food assistance program.
We could lessen the stress experience for nearly 97,000 kids whose families currently live below the poverty line — which is annual earnings below $25,926 for a family of four. But Congress still hasn’t renewed the Child Tax Credit, and the Kansas Legislature continues to defend barriers to assisting parents with child care while they’re in postsecondary education.
It’s become an impossible puzzle that working parents are left to solve on their own, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
All of us have a role to play in raising the next generation of Kansans, but leaders in Topeka are uniquely positioned to help more parents more quickly through increased and sustained investments in family-friendly policies and programs. The immediate and long-term impact of these investments is unquestionable, thanks to decades of research and evaluation. What we lack now is the political will.
Through its opinion section, the Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
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