Fallon County represented at Montana Child Care Policy Workshop



”It’s obvious that child care costs are completely broken, and I think everyone at the workshop generally agreed on that point,” said EMEDA and SMART Executive Director, Vaughn Zenko, after returning home from a childcare workshop in Gardiner, MT last month. “I wasn’t crazy enough to envision a fully state funded childcare like in Sweden would ever happen, but I came in with high hopes that we could hammer out something similar to what Mississippi is doing, with a 50% income tax credit for employers providing childcare, or Michigan (state pays a third, employer pays a third, and employee pays a third of childcare costs). Or especially the planned ND3 program in North Dakota (similar to the Michigan policy). It became clear early on from those present that that was going to be a non-starter for the Legislature.”

Vaughn attended the conference to discuss how the innovative approach of government, community and economic organizations partnering together could be an effective solution to a statewide issue. “The problem with childcare is that, on a gut level, we all know how important it is, but there’s not necessarily any immediately tangible return on investment that the state can point to and say ‘Hey, look at all this extra money we have now because of those dollars we put into childcare!’,” he explained. “It’s more of a conceptual, micro-economic thing, where parents can say yes, we saw a difference, businesses can say yes, we saw a difference and childcare providers can say yes, we saw a difference, but on the macroscale, the state isn’t seeing those dollars and specifically equating them to increased childcare. They’re also not seeing better school performance or a lower crime rate, suicide rate, or youth-at-risk behavior rate, because those numbers don’t start showing until ten or more years after the initial investment, so it was a tough sell, to say the least.”

With more than 60% of Montana being in what’s called a childcare desert, almost 10% higher than the national rate, it’s an important subject to tackle. According to the Center for American Progress a childcare desert is “any census tract with more than 50 children under age 5 that contains either no childcare providers or so few options that there are more than three times as many children as licensed child care slots”. “Again, it became clear that there was no Legislative interest in funding infrastructure development, despite the obvious need in rural Montana,” acknowledged Vaughn.

“My, and many of the others in attendance’s, attention turned to something more attainable, and one of the things I really wanted to focus on anyway, which was ways we could help the existing childcare providers in Montana,” he noted. “Fallon County is one of only four counties in the entire state with no licensed childcare providers, but I know, licensed or not, the home-based providers here are such an important part of the fabric of the community.” Along with Fallon, the neighboring counties of Carter and Wibaux are also among the four without licensed childcare providers.

“I was pleased when the conversation turned more towards that aspect of the childcare puzzle. We didn’t find a magic bullet to solve all of Montana’s childcare woes, but I think we came out of this with some good, feasible policies that will help,” he added.

Some of the upcoming policy changes that Montana might see regarding childcare include regulations on childcare providers that aren’t as strict as the ones currently in place to help cut costs and potentially tax credits for businesses that include childcare as a benefit to their employees.

“In the end, though, my big takeaway from the workshop was that places like Fallon County are pretty much just on our own regarding childcare solutions. While the ideas we all came up with at the policy workshop will hopefully help Montana as a whole, it’s mostly just going to affect those places that already have established childcare,” explained Vaughn. “For Fallon County, with essentially no childcare infrastructure at all, or at least only a fraction of what we actually need, there’s not going to be a whole lot of help coming from the state. Which I think we all knew, and I think fits right there in the spirit of Fallon County. We’re not ‘give us handouts’ kind of folks, and when we see a problem or see other people in need, we’ll solve that our own way.”

“There’s no real ‘right answer’ to the childcare crisis as a whole, but what EMEDA and the Baker Child Care Project are trying to do with the new facility combined with a fantastic community center is to find that solution that works for Fallon County to smartly establish the childcare infrastructure we need in a way that works for everyone, whether you’re a current parent or not. Once we get to that point, I’m super proud that a lot of the hard work we did at the policy workshop will, in the long run, start benefiting our parents and businesses and existing providers here at home. This workshop was a pretty groundbreaking moment for the future of Montana childcare. Nothing like this, getting lawmakers of all parties together with business and childcare interests, had ever been attempted before. It also let me know that we’re on the right track with what we’re trying to do here in Fallon County. This was just the start, and the future of childcare is looking brighter because of it. I’m infinitely humbled and proud that we had a seat at the table for this with all these other Montana luminaries, and that they all thought what we’re doing in Fallon County was important enough to be a part of the discussion. Nothing in politics ever moves as fast as everyone would like, but we moved the needle in the right direction to help Fallon County and that’s a big step,” he continued.

Although the issue of adequate childcare has yet to be resolved there is progress being made. In the meantime, there are resources available. “I encourage parents or business owners to give me call or email or message at SMART or the Baker Child Care Project, and if you’re a provider, either one of the established ones, a stayat home parent, or even just a family friend, don’t hesitate to give a call as well and I can help get you in touch with some resources to help,” urged Zenko.

The future of childcare in Fallon County still looks bright, with the Baker Child Care Project still hard at work to make quality childcare accessible and affordable. “In a perfect world, we get this childcare facility/community center done. We’re already engaged in some workforce development for that, and exploring options for establishing a business based childcare co-operative model with some supplementary early funding from EMEDA. It really would have a massive and immediate impact for parents and businesses alike. We’re really in a unique situation to build a completely new childcare infrastructure from the ground up and really be the example other communities in Montana and even around the country can look at to solve the child care crisis,” concluded Vaughn.

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