CEO Joe Neri of IFF (the largest CDFI in the midwest) writes that “The United States does not have a child care system – it has what Abby J. Cohen calls in her excellent A Brief history of Federal Financing for Child care in the United States “a collection of funding streams.” And it’s not a single collection; it’s 50 collections. Just in IFF’s 10-state Midwest region, there are eight different income qualifications for child care support, six different qualifications for early learning programs, and two states that do not offer a Pre-K program. There is no common quality rating system, and, until last year, the State of Missouri actually prohibited state agencies from creating one.”
To learn more about the disparities in the child care system and how far back these policies (or lack thereof) go, click here for the full article.
Article was originally published February 20, 2020.
