menu_open Columnists
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Trump’s child care win is no victory for American families

1 0
22.08.2025

Corrine Hendrickson opened Corrine’s Little Explorers in New Glarus, Wisconsin nearly 18 years ago. She has served 70 children since then in her family child care business.

But in August, she will be closing her doors, because operating the program is simply no longer sustainable.

Similarly, Seedlings to Sunflowers, a child care program in Maine, is struggling. Forced to raise rates to meet rising expenses, it instead created a funding gap as parents left the program because they no longer could afford it. Seedlings recently crowdfunded $25,000 from community members and families to stay open, but this is not a sustainable strategy.

Meanwhile, a mom in Bedford, Ohio was paid too little to afford child care — which cost her nearly twice family’s rent — but too much to qualify for assistance. Ultimately, her husband quit his job to care for their child.

These are some of the many reasons I am not doing a victory lap for the relatively meager child care provisions in the Trump mega-bill signed into law in July.

The provisions in the bill would do nothing to help people like Hendrickson keep serving children. It would not allow Seedlings to Sunflowers keep its rates affordable or support families like the Ohio mother's family to find and afford child care.

In this bill, Republicans haven’t given families any new child care options or opportunities. The child care sector will not get........

© The Hill