Casey spoke Friday at the Early Connections City Center Childcare facility, 704 State St.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey spoke with Erie-area parents Friday about the costs they incur for child care and what he would do to ease the burden.

Casey, Pennsylvania's senior senator, held a small forum with about a dozen parents at the Early Connections City Center Childcare facility, 704 State St., to discuss the difficulties that 71 percent of parents of children under age 18 experience trying to find "quality, affordable health care."

"On child care, we're not getting it right," Casey said. "We're not doing enough. The people in Washington don't get it, so we've got to send them a clear message, starting now and through the next election."

Casey heard from parents like Mike Snider, a 39-year-old administrative assistant at a local machine shop. Snider, whose wife Meghan is a teacher at Early Connections, said they were paying 23 percent of their pre-tax income for child care before their oldest son, now 4, began attending a pre-K program at the First Presbyterian Church of the Covenant. And even though they're paying child care for only their 2-year-old son now, it's still costing them about 13 percent.

"Even with two incomes we're struggling," Snider said.

Another parent, Kim Beers, who runs the Success By 6 and Erie Future Fund programs for Early Connections, has personal and professional experience with the issue. Beers, 36, a Millcreek Township said many parents find themselves in the same position her and her husband did: "Stuck in the middle," she said. They earn too much to qualify for assistance programs like Child Care Works, but not enough to avoid the financial burden imposed by high childcare costs. 

"I have the opportunity to talk to a lot of working-class families," she said. "A lot of them are above the income threshold to qualify for programs but they aren't rolling in dough. That's what happened to my husband and I as well. We're a two-parent household, but you just get stuck in the middle. It's hard."

Casey used his stop in Erie to push for passage of the Child Care for Working Families Act, legislation that would cap the out-of-pocket expense parents pay for childcare at 7 percent of their household income if they make less than 150 percent of their state's median income. 

Pennsylvania's median household income as of 2017 was $59,195, so households earning less than $88,792 would be eligible to have child care expenses capped under the proposal.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, re-introduced the Child Care for Working Families Act late last month. The bill would also provide universal access to preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds and ensure that child care workers are paid a living wage and that they are paid on the same level as elementary school teachers with similar credentials and experience.

That's a provision of the proposal that Snider likes especially because it would allow his wife to stay in her current job, which she likes, instead of entertaining other jobs based on pay alone.

Casey on Friday also re-introduced the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit Enhancement Act, which he first proposed in 2017. It would strengthen the current tax credit afforded to families to cover child care, Casey said, by making the credit refundable for low-income families, by making the full credit available to households with incomes under $120,000, and by increasing the amount a family could claim for child care expenses from a maximum of $1,050 per child to $3,000, and up to $6,000 total. It would also index benefits to inflation. 

"It's taking on existing policy and making it more generous," he said.

The existing credit is "too limited," he said, and hasn't been adjusted to account for the rising costs of raising a child.

Mother Michelle Husted said she supports the bills. Husted pays $199 a week for childcare for her 21-month-old son. That cost could rise to $385 a week when Husted gives birth to another baby boy in July. Husted wants to continue to work, but worries all her income would go toward childcare. 

Casey said both proposals could lift that burden.

The bills are in the early stages of the legislative process, he said. Casey believes supporters of child care policy reform need to be "obnoxiously persistent on this" and that the issue needs to become a key issue in the 2020 presidential campaign.

"If we passed both of these bills," he said, "it would provide a huge measure of relief."
