As Congress debates how much to spend on infrastructure, the battle lines are forming over another part of the Biden administration’s plan to rebuild this country. This one is about kids and who takes care of them.
The American Families Plan includes tax credits worth $300 a month for children under six and $250 a month for those under 18, but the administration also proposes a cap on the cost of day care. Middle and low-income families would pay no more than 7% of their earnings. At the University of Virginia, sociologist Brad Wilcox says that unfairly favors one approach to caring for children.
“Most American parents prefer to have their kids cared for at home either by a parent or a family member," he says. "In particular we see that Hispanics are the ones who are most likely to prefer that a parent or relative would care for their kid.”
That’s why Wilcox, a visiting scholar with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, is lining up behind an alternative proposal from Utah Senator Mitt Romney. His Family Security Act would provide $350 a month for each child under six and $250 for school-aged children.
“They could use that money to pay for child care or to pay for pre-school," he explains, "but they could also use that money to have parents stay at home full time or part-time to just sort of offset the costs.”
The debate is expected to begin in Congress later this summer.
