Back in the 1990s, the Clinton administration created the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) to help lower-income parents afford childcare so they could go to work or job training. That critical lifeline is helping care for 1.6 million children, and has helped states improve the caliber of their day care centers.

But the program is “chronically underfunded,” according to the National Women's Law Center. Only 1 in 7 eligible children – from families with an income 85% or less of their state’s median – are able to use it. Some states set the threshold at 60% or less. And that lack of funding from the federal Department of Health and Human Services has a ripple effect by shortchanging day care centers and their employees.

Enter the Trump administration, with a proposal that appears to be more about social engineering than helping low- and middle-income families move forward in life. Engineered by Vice President JD Vance, it would siphon away the CCDF funding for a $12 billion plan to pay parents $9,000 a year per child to stay home with them. It’s not subject to congressional approval, and doesn’t specify which spouse stays home, but you can guess who’d be expected to.

If the stay-at-home mother concept rings a bell, think back to Project 2025, the ideologically driven blueprint for President Donald Trump’s current term, concocted by the conservative Heritage Foundation and some of Trump’s former administration officials. It promotes........

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