The Big Opportunity: breaking down the Build Back Better framework and how it will change lives

After months of back and forth, the revised Build Back Better framework was finally unveiled last week by President Biden. This proposed legislation would put us on a path toward doing something that has eluded us for generations — finally fixing our country’s broken child care system.

The reconciliation package would invest approximately $400 billion in our country’s early education and care system. This monumental investment would transform funding for birth-to-five early learning programs. It’s a massive bill and a lot to digest.

Here’s what you need to know about the Build Back Better framework and how, if passed, it would impact you. And, if after you’re finished reading you want to learn more about the proposed package, check out the recent bonus episode of our podcast “No One is Coming to Save Us” and listen as Neighborhood Villages co-founders Lauren Kennedy and Sarah Muncey break it down.

What is the reconciliation package? What does it include?

Currently, there are two separate bills being pushed through Congress. First, we have the bi-partisan infrastructure package, which includes things like funding for transportation, roads, broadband and more. Then there is the companion piece to President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, known as the reconciliation package. This is a huge bill with a number of built-in budget priorities and investments, including:

• Ensuring universal preschool for all 3- and 4-year olds;

• Limiting child care costs for families to no more than 7% of income for families earning up to 250% of state median income; and

• Dramatically increasing the availability and accessibility of child care programs to all families of all incomes and backgrounds.

If passed, the bill would be a watershed investment in children and families and in America — the biggest in most of our lifetimes.

What do the child care subsidies proposed in the reconciliation package mean for families?

When we say this bill has the potential to be nothing short of life changing, we aren’t exaggerating. The reconciliation package would cut the cost of child care in half. Our home state of Massachusetts currently boasts the second highest child care costs in the country with families spending an average of $30,000-35,000 per year for child care. Cutting that number in half would dramatically and positively impact a family’s economic status and day-to-day life.

But how does it work? Let’s get into the nitty gritty. The bill proposes that if you make 75% or less than your state’s median income (SMI), child care will be free. That’s right. FREE.

From there, a sliding scale subsidy model applies. For example, if you make 75% to 100% SMI you’d be capped at spending 2% SMI income on child care expenses. A family would pay the full 7% at around 150% SMI. The incredible part is — no family in the U.S. earning less than 250% SMI will pay more than 7% of their household income on child care.  

If passed, would the proposed changes actually change the child care system?

The way the Build Back Better framework is written, it preserves the mixed delivery system we currently have, which includes center-based care, Family Child Care providers, and early learning programs offered through public schools. The bill doesn’t bulldoze what we’ve got; rather, it preserves the providers we have by changing the way we finance early education and care. The bill changes how we invest public dollars without taking away choice. Being able to choose the best child care program for your child is what matters to families. No matter a family’s zip code, language, or culture, families want the best for their children and want them raised in an environment of their choosing.

Rather than a parent asking “can I afford this” or “can I get a spot in this program” they will be focused on choosing the best option for their family and children.

How does this bill help early educators?

An important aspect of this bill is that it doesn’t just make child care more affordable for families, but it also requires raising wages of early educators. The high costs of running a child care program, and the unconscionably low wages that our early educators have been forced to accept, have contributed to a severe workforce crisis in the field. In Massachusetts and nationally, early educators earn little more than minimum wage, with salaries as low as $14 or $15 an hour. More than 15% live below the poverty line.

In Massachusetts, if we were paying educators what they should be paid, it’s estimated that care for an infant would cost $40,000 ($20,000 more than the current going rate). Under Build Back Better, a family of four in Massachusetts making less than $300,0000  a year would pay no more than 7% of their income on care — far less than that figure!

We can’t address affordability and access without supporting our educators, and this bill would finally ensure that our country’s early education and care system was both affordable to families AND paying child care educators a living wage.

The Takeaway

All in all, this legislation has the opportunity to change the lives of millions of families around the country. At Neighborhood Villages, we’re going to fight until this bill is passed and these promises are made a reality.

To learn more about the child care crisis and how we got to this point, be sure to check out our podcast, No One is Coming to Save Us.