A recent state report found 23% of Iowans live in a childcare desert, where there is a shortage of licensed providers.

As lawmakers consider ways to give the parents of young children more options...we sit down with childcare experts on this edition of Iowa Press.

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For decades.

Iowa Press has brought you political leaders and news makers from across Iowa and beyond.

Celebrating 50 years of broadcast excellence on statewide Iowa PBS...this is the Friday, January 21st edition of Iowa Press.

Here is Kay Henderson.

For years, policy makers have been talking about a lack of access to quality affordable childcare.

It's been called a child care shortage.

During the pandemic, they've been calling it a crisis.

Our guests here today are here to talk about the childcare industry in Iowa.

We're joined by Lora Patton, who is the regional director of the Iowa Childcare Resource and Referral.

Alex Glenn is director of human resources for Generation Next child development centers.

Welcome to you both here at the Iowa Press table.

Hi there.

Thank you.

And joining us remotely is Dawn Oliver Wiand.

She is president and CEO of the Iowa Women's Foundation.

Dawn, thank you for joining us.

Thank you.

Joining us here to ask questions are Erin Murphy of the Gazette of Cedar Rapids and Steven Gruber-Miller of the Des Moines Register.

So Lora, I wanna start with you.

Kay just described this, this crisis in Iowa, and let's define the problem for our viewers.

What do you see as the biggest issues in childcare here in Iowa?

Um, well, what we're hearing is parents aren't able to access it where they need to with, um, just especially in the rural areas, uh, it's everywhere in Iowa, but rural is really struggling.

And then the childcare programs are struggling to find staff in the workforce to, um, to make up these programs and care for the children.

Sure.

And Dawn, why do you think the problem is worse in rural Iowa?

We know that it's worse in rural Iowa from the research that we've done.

And we're seeing that just because there's not enough staff.

Um, and there's also not enough slots.

So when you combine the two, you have a greater issue.

Yeah.

Alex, are you seeing these problems at your facility?

Anything to add to those?

Uh, yeah, absolutely.

Um, we, for instance, have waiting lists for our centers up until January of 2023 at this point.

So you know that there are people searching for childcare.

And the staff retention, the, the ability to fill our centers with competent, qualified staff is, is really lacking.

And we're seeing that everywhere throughout the five communities we serve.

Dawn, if I could ask a follow up.

In the spring of last year, there was a state report that said 23% percent of Iowans live in a childcare desert.

Um, and it said that 35% of rural Iowas live in a childcare desert, Has that gotten worse since last spring?

We've not actually done the research to see if it's gotten worse, but from the stories that we're hearing and the conversations we're having, it has gotten worse.

Because we know that the waiting lists are growing.

We know that the centers have openings, that they can't fill them because they don't have the staff.

Um, so we haven't done the actual research, but from what we're hearing, we truly believe it has.

So we've identified the problem.

Now we want to hand each of you a magic wand, uh, and ask you how you would fix it.

Alex, we'll start with you.

From a policy standpoint, what could be done to address these issues that you all just laid out?

Um, I know this answer's not going to appease <laugh>, uh, a lot of people, but it's money.

It's, uh, magic wand.

It is throwing money at the problem.

Um, we need larger centers, especially in those rural communities.

Um, we need the ability to house these children, um, and care for them and provide educational opportunities.

Um, but we also need to find staff for those.

I know the Iowa childcare challenge has opened up about 9,000 spots, uh, or is trying to, for childcare.

But my first thought is who's going to staff those.

It's difficult right now.

We need help to not only build those childcare centers and, and places, but we need, we need benefits that are comparable to other fields and the money just isn't there to do so, you know.

In elementary education, through high school, you have things like IPERS, you have, um, great benefit packages and, uh, childcare is... We provide a finite, um, resource, you know.

We can't provide more, uh, spots.

We have, we have a concrete building where there are walls.

We can only care for so many children in there.

We can't work harder and produce more to make more money, uh, to, um, you know, provide wage increases and have people, uh, not want to go to other fields and other industries.

So one of the issues here is also how expensive childcare can be for parents.

So does this, I assume you don't wanna raise the cost.

Are you saying that the, this financial assistance has to come from the government?

I don't know where else it comes from, to be honest with you.

Um, because childcare, as it stands is a bubble.

And, you know, just from what we're hearing, and I think hopefully people would agree with me on this panel, that it's close to bursting.

And I fundamentally believe that the, um, economy, all we've heard about the last two years is that the economy has to keep going.

We have to keep the economy going.

America's a big ship.

You can't just, can't just stop it.

Um, without childcare the economy collapses.

Dawn, it sounded as if you wanted to weigh in on this.

Oh gosh, I should learn that I'm on a mic.

Sorry.

<laugh> um, absolutely.

I agree with Alex.

Um, but, um, I believe, and we at the Women's Foundation, that this issue is really big.

Um, and it's gonna take multiple solutions in multiple ways, and those are gonna be different from community to community.

Um, and we look at a public private partnership.

We need to see both federal and state dollars.

But we also need to see business dollars and philanthropic dollars all coming together to address this issue and to really look at what solutions we can put into place to help.

Dawn, if you could, give our viewers just a sentence to explain how the Iowa Women's Foundation is connected to this issue.

The Iowa Women's Foundation, back in 2015, learned of the barriers to economic success for women and girls in the state of Iowa.

And childcare was identified as the primary barrier that needed to be addressed first, if we really wanted to see women become economically self-sufficient.

And so we started what we call the building community childcare solutions, which is a program working with community partners all across the state to increase the availability of quality, affordable childcare so more women can return to work and become economically self-sufficient.

And Lora, agree, disagree with any of that.

Or maybe add something that wasn't mentioned.

What's in your magic wand?

Right.

I think, um, I agree with what they've both said.

And it is, it is that partnership.

Every community's gonna be different as to what the fix will be.

Um, you know, as far as you mentioned about raising the rates for families, that really can't happen.

So it is how do we infuse some other money in, um, so that we can offer the pay and benefits to the employees in childcare that they could receive going to work at the public school as an educational associate or, um, at Hy-Vee, or one of the other, you know, large, um, companies in Iowa.

So we really do have to figure out how to encourage and invite people to come work in this industry.

Alex, you're the HR director of Generation Next.

Where are they?

How many of them are there?

How many people are on your staff?

Yeah, so we, uh, now serve five communities.

Um, our newest location is in Bondurant.

Um, but we started in Johnson right down the street from here.

Ankeny.

Urbandale.

We are actually located in the Farm Bureau building in West Des Moines.

Um, we have about 250 employees and looking for more.

Well, that's my next question.

How do you find employees?

And you talked about the benefits that you would like to offer.

Can you keep them once you hire them?

And that's the issue.

And, um, we actually did to answer a previous question.

We did raise our rates this year.

The pandemic's not been easy to navigate, uh, financially.

Um, and we also want to retain those staff that we've had.

And, um, it's difficult.

We've had a lot of people change fields, change industries.

I mean, Dawn might attest to this too, but, uh, women it's a 95% female dominated industry.

Women have been experiencing burnout, um, in general, uh, more than men.

Uh, I think the last couple years surveyed 42% of women are experiencing burnout.

So how do we get people to stay?

Well, we increase our benefits.

We recently, uh, brought our childcare prices down for all of our employees to $50 per week.

Down from half price.

We are now offering a 401k.

We pay 50 percent of, uh, medical premiums.

We increased our vacation and PTO time for people who have been here for, uh, six plus years.

And this is all to keep people in the field.

To keep people with us.

People that we love and who are great at what they do.

And it's difficult.

And once they leave us, they don't go to another childcare center.

They leave the field entirely.

They go to somewhere where there's less burnout, they're not so stressed, and where they have better benefits.

We need to keep them here.

Nobody goes from Wells Fargo to childcare.

So Iowa policy makers are looking at trying to tackle this problem with various solutions.

One of the solutions being proposed at the Iowa Statehouse right now is increasing the child to staff ratios at some of these centers, so that adults could care for more children to help with some of those staffing issues.

Dawn, what do you think of this approach, and is it the right idea?

Well, the women's foundation is a part of a coalition called the Iowa childcare coalition, which is a group of 11 organizations around the state that advocate for childcare.

And many of us are looking at these ratios in conjunction with all of the other components that are being brought forward.

We wanna see what the big picture is.

What we're hearing is this is one step of many that they're gonna take.

So at this point, we're waiting to say, okay, if this is one step, what are those other steps?

But safety and quality are important, and we need to make sure we don't lose those two things.

while we look at the other things that we're gonna put into place to address the issue.

Lora, are people making decisions about where to send their kids for childcare based on some of these ratios?

Well, we hope that families can use some of that as their basis.

But right now, with the shortage, in some cases, people are just trying to find that slot.

So, you know, ideally a family can say, we want to go to a program in our community that offers this, this and this, but he might not have spaces for them or slots for them.

So in some cases they're just choosing what they can find.

Um, and that goes back again on the policy piece, that in the diff you know, Dawn's point like we need to wait and see what the whole picture is in what's being proposed.

But keeping quality at the forefront, because every kid deserves a good experience from zero to five.

So much development happens during that time.

Um, we get 'em ready to, to send 'em off to school where they do have to be in a group of 20 or 25 kids and be able to be successful.

And so that zero to five age group is when that happens.

So that means the childcare needs to be quality.

We need adults who are able to work with those kids and be available to them.

So you have to take that into consideration when you think about your group size, your class size and those things.

And Alex, how are you thinking about that staffing and those ratios to give that quality care at your facilities?

Yeah.

So ratios exist for a reason, and it's safety.

Um, it's a quality education.

And if you survey most parents probably in the entire country, your gonna say, you know, whether you have a 10th grader or a kindergartner, what's better, bigger class sizes or smaller class sizes?

And they're gonna say smaller.

And that way we can individualize education.

We can provide more individualized care.

We can, um, get to know the children a little bit better, and we can keep them as safe as possible.

Um, I'm telling you right now, from the talks we've had with our management team, that if the ratios do get increased, we probably will not participate.

For one thing, buildings are already made for certain ratios.

So our classroom sizes are made for specific things, and you can't just tack on an extra partition and make your building to code.

You know, we have our nursery rooms that are able to fit so many cribs, so many toys, so bodies.

And you can't just wave a wand, as you said, and make it so that it works.

And, um, at this juncture, I don't think it's something that we could safely implement and do.

So Alex, stay with you first on this one.

Some of the other bills that are being run or kind of similar in this vein and under the larger umbrella of making it, uh, easier for a childcare business to either establish itself in the first place, or grow or build, you know, they've been looking at, uh, building codes, regulations, tax credits, for example.

Mm-hmm <affirmative>.

How much does that kind of stuff help this larger issue?

So, I believe that getting childcare centers started is huge.

The childcare challenge is great.

Especially again, as we talked, those rural communities, the ones that don't have access.

That's actually a big reason why we built over in Bondurant is because we saw the need.

It's a growing community, lots of new houses being built, young families.

So we want to, we want to be there to provide that service.

Um, that's all well and good, but we have those other issues that aren't going to be solved by just creating new spots.

Tax credits are great.

We could definitely use those.

But the existing centers need this stuff as well.

We need the money, we need the funds we need, uh, a look at.

Because, you know, we are struggling as well.

It's great that these other communities are having access, but, um, this is not just a rural issue.

It's not a center of the country issue.

This is everywhere.

Lora, same question to you.

Um, will you restate the question?

Yeah.

So, so the package, a lot of the bills that are running right now are focused on, um, you know, building structures, helping childcare centers expand maybe.

How much of that is the problem, and how much of it is, uh, to Alex's point, more about just making, finding ways to have some financial assistance to make this thing affordable?

Thank you.

Um, and I, so, you know, there's been lots of different funding sources out there and one that Childcare Resource and Referral was helping with was called investing in Iowa childcare.

And it was for programs starting up, as he mentioned.

Both child development homes and centers.

So people who may choose to run a business out of their home.

Um, we also offered some funds for urgent regulatory needs.

So if they needed to fix something, and those things.

And then for expansion.

But again, as he mentioned, buildings are built so big and, and then you may want to refit a classroom or something, but then can you find the staff to put in it?

So, um, just, there's lots of pieces to it.

And again, that's why we go back to there's not one right fix for every situation.

We really have to look at it individually and take it from there.

Dawn, what are your thoughts?

Absolutely agree.

I think this, and we believe, that it's going to take all of that and probably things that we haven't even thought about yet.

We have to build and expand.

Um, but we have to then look at operations, and how can we continue with operations?

Um, our number one recommendation from the governor's childcare task force was to increase wages and find a way to get benefits for childcare providers.

How?

I mean that's the big thing is, is what is that gonna take?

And I think that's what we're trying to look at is what are all the different ways we can do that to not only build and expand, but then to support operations so the childcare industry can become vibrant and grow and sustainable.

Dawn, you just mentioned the governor's childcare task force, which you, which you served on.

One of the findings of that task force is that the average family with kids is paying more for childcare than they are for housing.

How do you solve that problem of affordability for families?

Well, one thing we need to do first is we need to really look at increasing the childcare assistance eligibility income.

Um, we recommended that that be increased 185%.

I know that the surrounding states have even higher levels.

So first we need to do that.

So, quality affordable... And Dawn, if I might interrupt here, you're talking about 185% of the federal poverty level, correct?

Correct.

Thank you.

Kay.

I appreciate that.

Um, so, you know, first we need to, we need to look at that.

And then we need to look at what are other ways that we can increase revenue and decrease expenses for our childcare centers without increasing parent fees.

We cannot put this issue on the back of parents anymore.

We have to step out of the box and find unique, different ways to address this.

Um, that's why we need to look at public private partnerships.

That's why we need to look at how can businesses get involved.

We need to look at maybe a shared services program to help with the expenses, um, of childcare centers.

Just a number of different options.

I like to say there will be a menu of solutions and things that we're gonna need to implement across the state, depending on what is best for each of the particular areas.

Sure.

So Dawn just mentioned a shared services model where, uh, centers could go and get some of those resources taken care of.

Can, can Alex, can you describe kind of what that might look like and how, you know, centers could use this centralized system, uh, to, to sort of meet some of the needs that it's hard to do in a small business on their own?

Yeah, I'm not entirely sure.

I do know that when we received some stipends from the government, um, during the pandemic, um, that, that was really helpful, um, in just making ends meet, um, during a very difficult financial time, as, you know, PPE, things like gloves become more expensive.

Food costs are driven up.

Honestly... Well, and I think Laura is involved in that sort of policy about the shared services, correct?

Yeah.

And it's just, it's based on the governor's childcare task force.

It's kind of getting some feet under it right now and, and really looking at how it will go forward.

But it is looking at some of those programs to be able to, you know, talk about benefits.

Can we figure out a way that we can get some group benefit type things or, um, business training, you know, in some cases.

Alex is part of a very established group of programs.

But some of those startup programs that people know like the community needs it, we need to get it started, but they don't know how to keep it going.

Like our service can help them get started, and we can be a resource to them.

But as far as the day-to-day business of running payroll or things like that, they may need help with that.

So it really, it's at the beginning stages of looking at this and what it might, what it might end up being.

But, um, it's definitely a place to start for programs and even child development homes, where you have a provider who might be caring for children in their home as a licensed program, a registered program.

But they could use those resources too.

And if I may, um, something like IPERS that you know, is access and, um.

Retirement.

To our educators.

It would be great to be able to extend that into, um, our early childhood educators.

Something, like so that's for retirement.

Medical benefits are really good in the education system, and we just don't have access to that.

We are constantly haggling every year.

Medical inflation is 10%, which is, you know, eight to 9% more than regular inflation year over year.

It's becoming untenable for our employees.

I believe one in 10 early childhood educators live below the poverty line.

25% of them nationally, um, don't take, or do take their employer's medical insurance options.

And a lot of them are either through the Affordable Care Act or on their state, their state insurances.

We need something like that.

Like benefits, retirement, medical, to make it an attractive job.

Because nobody's in education to, um, make a lot of money.

We know that.

Whether it's a high school teacher or an early childhood educator.

But there has to be something that you're also getting out of it.

You can't just survive in this world on love.

Alex, in the couple minutes we have left, uh, one more thing we wanted to touch on, and you mentioned a little bit earlier, is the pandemic.

Obviously that was, uh, childcare was one of the industries that got hit hardest in the early stages of that.

How is the industry doing maybe in general now, and again, in a few seconds here, um, how has it changed permanently in any ways?

Um, I think we've had to harden our hearts against, uh, maybe some angrier parents than we're used to.

Um, but you know, it's been difficult.

We stayed open throughout this whole thing.

Never put anybody on unemployment.

Never shut down our doors unless we shut classrooms during COVID exposures.

It's been incredibly difficult.

And I'm lucky that we're still here, to be honest with you.

I think 50% of childcare centers closed throughout the pandemic.

And, you know, not all of them opened back up.

It's been difficult.

We appreciate all the help we got from the state and from the federal government, the PPP.

Um, <laugh> we appreciate our staff for sticking with us.

Burnout's been insane.

It has not been easy.

Um, I guess, if anything, just say thank your childcare provider.

We're out here trying <laugh>.

Lora, you mentioned quality.

We have half a minute left.

Is there enough of this debate focused on the actual service that's being provided to the child?

I think it could get some more attention.

Definitely.

I think we wanna come up with solutions, but we have to keep that quality piece in mind.

Thinking of that zero to five age group and what you're, what you're getting kids ready for.

Well, I have to take consideration of the clock and sadly, we are out of time for this conversation.

And we so appreciate you joining us here at the table today.

You can watch Iowa Press at our regular broadcast times, 7:30 on Fridays, and at noon on Sundays, or anytime on IowaPBS.org.

For everyone here at Iowa PBS, thanks for watching.

Funding for Iowa Press was provided by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation.

The Associated General Contractors of Iowa, the public's partner in building Iowa's highway, bridge and municipal utility infrastructure.

Fuel Iowa is a voice and a resource for Iowa's fuel industry.

Our members offer a diverse range of products, including fuel, grocery, and convenience items.

They help keep Iowans on the move in rural and urban communities.

Together, we fuel Iowa.

Small businesses are the backbone of Iowa's communities, and they are backed by Iowa banks.

With advice, loans and financial services, banks across Iowa are committed to showing small businesses the way to a stronger tomorrow.

Learn more at iowabankers.com.