Polling shows voters want candidate support for child care in Ohio, other ‘battleground’ states

Children at day care.(Getty Images)

New polling shows voters in Ohio and other states spotlighted in the presidential election as “battleground states” want to hear plans to improve child care as part of candidate campaigns.

The child care advocacy group First Five Years Fund commissioned the polling through two research teams to survey registered voters in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Montana, Arizona and Nevada.

The researchers found “voters make a strong connection between expanding access to quality child care and a strong economy.”

“And across all demographics, voters expressed strong support for solutions including increasing funding going to states to expand child care options and modernizing the tax system to support child care and early learning,” First Five Years Fund stated in announcing the polling.

The research found that 85% of voters “in states that will be critical to the makeup of the United States Senate,” which includes Ohio, “say they’d be more likely to vote for candidate who supports increased federal funding to the states to expand child care.”

Overall, 89% of voters in the states polled “want candidates to have a plan or policies ready to help working parents afford high-quality child care,” researchers found, with all political affiliations surveyed giving at least 80% support.

The study found that 82% of Trump voters support affordable child care policies, and 96% of voters committed to voting for Biden standing in support of further improvement to the child care system.

Affordable child care is “essential/very important” for a strengthened economy, according to 68% of all voters surveyed.

“Top messages in support of increasing federal funding for child care and early education include giving children a strong foundation, financial strain on families paying for child care, low wages for child care workers and the limits placed on parents in the workplace when they cannot find quality, affordable care,” the study stated.

Asked about specific programs, 85% of survey participants want increases to federal funding to expand programs like the Child Care Development Block Grant. That includes 96% of Democrats, 86% of registered independents and 74% of Republican participants.

Federally, the U.S. House voted to expand a child tax credit early this year, but the measure was left stuck in the U.S. Senate as Republicans criticized a provision that allowed those who earned no annual income to still qualify for the tax credit.

This argument came as reports found child care costs surpassing wages in the country, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showing a 214% increase since 1990.

Ohio has seen its own rising child care costs and decreased staffing in child care facilities, creating a challenging situation in need of urgent attention, according to advocates.

Both Republicans and Democrats have introduced measures to attempt to solve the child care challenges in Ohio, with a state tax credit proposed by Democrats in October that would credit a family $1,000 per year for each child aged 0 to 5, and $500 annually per child aged 6 to 17.

Those with a maximum annual income of $65,000 per household would qualify for full benefits, and the benefits would phase out up to the cap of $85,000 per year if the bill were to pass.

Republicans recently introduced their own attempt to address child care struggles, with a bill to create cost-sharing between employers, employees and the state.

Under the companion bills in the Ohio House and Senate, $10 million would be appropriated to start a voluntary program, meant to incentivize businesses to invest in child care and attract employers who have left under the weight of child care costs back to the workforce.

Employers would chose the employees would would benefit from the program, and those employees must be ineligible for publicly funded child care to qualify.

The bill has the support of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and child advocacy group Groundwork Ohio, both of whom praised the bill in a press conference announcing the proposed measure.

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