Susannah Petitt

New! I sat down (remotely) with @GovAndyBeshear to talk about his views on local + national child care policy, and his approach to spending on new programs more broadly. As the 2028 primary starts to take shape, Beshear is signaling he'd prioritize pre-K for 4-year-olds

I have a story up today on the race in politics to define what "universal child care" means, and whether to use that phrase at all! A few interesting things I learned while reporting: --There's real state-level interest in addressing the affordability and accessibility of child care. A bipartisan group representing 13 states worked with @NCSLorg over 18 months and released a framework this past summer for all states to build out their systems. But they steered clear of "universal" language. Jim Burgin, a GOP state Sen. from North Carolina who co-chaired the working group, told me he wants to see child care centers on every community college across NC, and thinks expanding access to affordable child care is a nonpartisan, no-brainer issue. But he also doesn't like the phrase "universal child care" which he thinks sounds like government-run, mandatory public schools. He thinks it's an unhelpful slogan. Leaders like @RoKhanna, on the other hand, thinks child care should be understood as a public good like public schools, free and available to all, even as he's also pushing Democrats to consider more choice-based options. The question of whether universal means free or subsidized is also an open one right now. Linda Smith, of Child Care Trust, argues it doesn't need to mean free, but it should be affordable, accessible, and a "shared responsibility" between families, the government, and employers. Does universal include grandparents and neighbors? Stay-at-home-parents? All private-sector providers? "These are fluid definitions, and as such they are a bit up for grabs at the moment," as one expert told me. On the Democratic side, there's a growing group of advocates who say what went wrong in Build Back Better was that their child care plans weren't ambitious enough. @SenWarren is helping to lead this charge. Others say the same problems that killed child care in BBB, a lack of issue prioritization and way to finance it, have not been resolved and worry about making promises to voters Congress can't keep. Bottom line though, 2028 presidential hopefuls are already staking out positions on child care and pre-K. Think tanks (including @NewAmerica and @ThirdWayTweet) have been putting out new proposals on universal care in the hopes of pushing Democrats towards a new federal agenda. Other details in the story, including polling on what we know right now about how voters feel, and why some advocates think voters' views will ultimately change. gift link: vox.com/policy/506026/child-…