Last month during the Kansas Legislature’s special budget session, one contentious issue in the budget bill was doubling the state’s child care tax credit. Rep. Mark Steffen, R-Hutchinson, made comments saying the tax credit served as an “incentive” for mothers to enter the workforce and weaken “traditional families.
” Justifiably, he was blasted by colleagues on both sides of the aisle. Taking such an opposition to the child care tax credit is not only “offensive” — as stated by Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover — it ignores the hard reality that Kansas families face. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the cost of day care is unaffordable for 92% of families in the state.
A shortage of child care has continued to drive up costs. 104 of the state’s 105 counties have a higher demand than availability. The supply and demand issue raises child care costs and prices families — especially mothers as women often make lower wages than men — out of the workforce.
Infant care costs are 28.4% higher than full-time college tuition at an in-state public university, and child care costs for kids young than 4 are about equal to full-time public university tuition costs. Infant care is about 12.
3% higher than Kansas’ average rent costs. Kansas’ child care costs as a percentage of workers’ salary is one of the highest in the country. According to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, an average single adult Kansan with one child would need to make $34.