(The Center Square) – Indiana’s top state House of Representatives lawmaker told business leaders on Monday that he wants to see the General Assembly continue to work on making child care more accessible.
However, he also warned employers that they need to do more themselves.
The topic of expanding affordable child care came up during the Indiana Chamber of Commerce’s Legislative Preview. Present were House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, House Minority Leader Phil GiaQuinta, D-Fort Wayne, and Senate President Pro Tem Rod Bray, R-Martinsville.
While the Legislature passed two chamber-backed bills in this year’s session to streamline regulations for child-care providers, Chamber President and CEO Vanessa Green Sinders told the legislative leaders that the business community wants to continue working with the Statehouse on the issue.
Huston said some previously passed laws and regulations made it “almost impossible” for new providers to open. That created a lack of supply, which drove up costs to the point some families’ daycare expenses rival the price of a college education.
According to a 2022 Child Care Aware report, Indiana was the eighth-least affordable state for center-based care for infants and toddlers. In 2020, daycare for Hoosier infants cost $13,241. That equaled 14.5% of the state’s median married family income, and it was nearly half of the median income for the state’s single-parent families.
The cost for toddler care was $11,795, or nearly 13% of married family median income and almost 44% of single-parent families’ median earnings.
Indiana business leaders have pointed to the high cost of child care as an obstacle that keeps too many Hoosiers from working. According to the First Five Years Fund, the state faces a 48% child care gap, and the estimated economic impact of the lack of access to infant and toddler care is $2.2 billion.
Huston added that the Legislature will continue to seek ways to encourage the creation of more child care options but, at the same time, put the ball back in the business community’s court.
“I think it is incumbent that you should not be looking in the state of Indiana to solve your child care needs,” he said. “If you think you have child care needs that are preventing you from having the workforce capacity you need, I would suggest you figure out how to do it instead of looking at for us to do it for you.”
GiaQuinta concurred on the need to continue reviewing regulations but added that the state should also consider incentives for companies that work together to address their workers’ child care needs.
“We don’t want to make them less safe, but if we continue to work on those types of things, with regard to child care centers, so more folks get into the business, that may help more competition to help bring down some of those costs,” the Democratic leader said.
