By: Miriam Edelman
U.S. Senator Mike Lee and Representative Nancy Mace continued focusing on D.C.’s childcare employees. As DCNOW’s blog piece, entitled “Congress Again Tries to Overrule a D.C. Regulation and End D.C. Home Rule,” at least twice during the past few years, they introduced bills that tried to end D.C.’s education requirement for childcare workers. Their latest attempt was through their Childcare Worker Opportunity Act bills (S. 4653/H.R. 8983) of July 10, 2024. Recently, Lee and Mace appear to have timed their recent D.C. child-care op-ed with the D.C. Council’s work regarding child care.
On October 11, 2024, D.C. Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) introduced PR25-0994 - Early Childhood Educator Pay Scales Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2024. This bill would
[d]eclare the existence of an emergency with respect to the need to amend the Day Care Policy Act of 1979 to update the minimum salaries child development facilities must pay assistant and lead teachers beginning in January 2025 to participate in the Early Childhood Pay Equity Program.
The resolution mentioned the Early Childhood Pay Equity Fund, which DCNOW’s blog has been covering in its pieces, entitled “Child Care Must Be Funded in Washington, D.C.,” “D.C.’s Pay Equity Fund Has Been Funded,” and “D.C.’s Pay Equity Fund Is In D.C.’s New Budget Law.”
Just as Congress continued its efforts to prevent D.C. non-U.S. citizens from voting in local D.C.’s elections soon before non-U.S. citizens were to vote in local D.C.’s elections for the first time (as was described in DCNOW’s blog piece, entitled “Congress Continues to Attempt to Prevent Non-U.S. Citizens from Voting in Local D.C. Elections”), Lee and Mace seemed to interfere exactly when the D.C. Council considered PR25-0994. On October 14, 2024, The Washington Post published their opinion piece, entitled “College degrees aren’t what make great child care: D.C. keeps rolling out needless regulations that make child care more expensive.” Lee and Mace write:
Every working parent knows that child care is nearly unattainable for many families across America. For those living in our nation’s capital, a growing list of onerous regulations has made the cost of child care among the highest in the country.
The numbers speak for themselves: In a survey conducted by Under 3 DC, a local nonprofit, more than half of parents said child-care costs “would affect their ability to continue to live in Washington.”
Again, Mace misused the report of Under 3 DC, which DCNOW is a member of. As DCNOW wrote in its piece, entitled “Congress Again Tries to Overrule a D.C. Regulation and End D.C. Home Rule:”
Interestingly, the Under 3 DC report had the following recommendation: “The District needs to continue its multifaceted program of supporting early educators to achieve needed credentials, including Child Development Associate credentials, associate’s degrees, and bachelor’s degrees.”
Then, in their October 2024 piece, Lee and Mace attacked D.C., commenting “Rather than tackle skyrocketing costs, D.C.’s superintendent for education imposed yet another regulation last year that will make the crisis worse.” They criticized D.C.’s requirements that child-care workers have an associate’s degree and child-care facilities directors to have a bachelor’s degree. According to them, “This mandate will make child care more expensive.” They also wrote,
D.C. parents consistently say that cost and availability are the paramount child-care problems in the city. There is no outcry about the qualifications of current caregivers. In fact, parents like the quality of care their children receive when they get it — so much so they want more of it. Qualified child-care workers, who are valued by parents, shouldn’t be forced from their job over arbitrary rules. And potential caregivers shouldn’t be blocked from the field because bureaucrats and regulators who think they know how to raise children better than parents say so.
They added:
The real victims of this regulation are child-care workers — and everyday families. The city’s continued rollout of regulations has left parents with fewer viable options, making affordable child care a mere dream. Parents deserve policies that work in their favor, not against them.
They described their Childcare Worker Opportunity Act:
Our bill would repeal the unnecessary education requirements for child-care workers in D.C. By eliminating this barrier, we can reopen the workforce to skilled caregivers who have been unjustly excluded, lower child-care costs and bring relief to families.
This bill is an important step toward changing D.C.’s approach to child care. The city needs to eliminate a litany of regulations that hike the cost of child care without improving quality.
The D.C. Council noticed this op-ed. As D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson wrote in her “October Newsletter #2: Congressional Meddling is Spooky,” As Halloween draws near, one of the most haunting things I can imagine is Congress’ uninformed opinions leading to harmful policies, specifically impacting the District.” She added:
Earlier this week two members of Congress had an op-ed published in The Washington Post criticizing the education and training standards the District has put in place for our early childhood education workforce. It amplifies their misinformed (there is a huge difference between a Child Development Associate credential and traditional Associate’s degree) and misguided legislation which would prohibit the District from requiring any training or education for those who seek to work in the early childhood setting. If passed, not only would this be more extreme than what’s happening in their own states, but across the country.
Their comments came just as the DC Council met to approve the Early Childhood Educator Pay Scales Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2024, which would update minimum salaries child development facilities must pay assistant and lead teachers beginning in January 2025 to participate in the Early Childhood Pay Equity Program.
On October 15, 2024 (the day after the op-ed was published), the D.C. Council passed PR25-0994 by a vote of 12 Yes to 1 Absent. On October 25, 2024, this resolution was published in the D.C. Register Vol 71 and Page 012859.
Congress must stop meddling in local affairs. D.C. needs to become a state already. Lee and Mace ended their October 14th piece with “We need to get the government out of the way so families can access affordable, high-quality child care and thrive.” Actually, D.C. needs Congress to keep its hands off D.C. so D.C. can thrive.
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