MD child care advocates seek to sustain funding, support expanded pre-K

After a year that saw Maryland’s largest-ever investment in child care, advocates say their legislative priorities include sustained funding for the state’s child care subsidy program and additional support for private day care providers seeking to enter the pre-K market under the state’s Blueprint education plan.

Beth Morrow, director of public policy at the nonprofit Maryland Family Network, said her organization’s focus will be on sustaining the state’s record investment in the Child Care Scholarship Program, which helps eligible families pay for child care and early education programs.

The governor’s 2025 budget included a combined $488 million for the subsidy program to keep up with soaring child care costs and rapidly increasing demand. Enrollment in the program has risen from roughly 20,000 two years ago to more than 42,000 today, according to Maryland State Department of Education figures.

“Our main priority is sustaining those investments and making sure that there’s no wait list for parents who are trying to access child care and that parents aren’t asked to carry the burden of heavy co-payments,” Morrow said.

Two unsuccessful proposals last year would have allowed the state to reimpose an enrollment freeze and waiting list and to charge co-pays without input from the General Assembly.

Christina Peusch, president of the Maryland State Child Care Association, emphasized the importance of the subsidy program not just for children and families but for the child care industry.

“We are finally not at the bottom of the country with our reimbursement rates and eligibility, so we’re able to serve more families with quality programs,” she said.

Five years ago, Maryland had one of the worst child care subsidy programs in the nation, according to the Maryland Family Network, which cited Annapolis testimony by an official with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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Between 2018 and 2022, Maryland’s subsidy increased from the ninth to the 70^th percentile of overall rates charged by private providers in the state. In the same period, the family income eligibility limit was expanded, from $35,000 for a family of four to just over $90,000, while co-pays were eliminated for many families and significantly reduced for the rest.

Peusch hailed the progress but said more work remained to be done – though perhaps not this year, given Maryland’s budget shortfall.

“We know we still have a way to go, but unfortunately the climate of the budget won’t allow us to move forward,” she said.

Mixed-delivery pre-K

The first pillar of the landmark Blueprint education reform plan, passed by the General Assembly in 2021, is expanded pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds. Under the plan’s mixed-delivery model, pre-K is provided by both public schools and private providers, including child care centers and family day cares that receive state funding to participate.

But private providers have been slow to embrace the project. Child care centers originally were to provide at least 35% of pre-K seats in the 2023-2024 school year, but only 5% of the state’s private providers took part, according to figures from the Maryland State Department of Education.

Many private providers struggle with the grant application to receive state funds, according to Morrow.

“The timing of it is tricky,” she said, explaining that the state sends the grant applications late in the annual student enrollment cycle, when child care centers don’t necessarily have the time to ramp up staffing.

Morrow also said the state should consider issuing multiyear grants.

“If a provider is demonstrating that they’re good at this and they have the capacity and the staff and they’ve met all the requirements one year, why do they have to do it again?” she asked.

Peusch pointed to another issue that makes private providers leery of taking part in pre-K: Centers must maintain at least a level 3 out of 5 ranking to participate — but a level 5 center can be knocked down to a level one if it receives two licensing violations.

“That takes away tens of thousands of dollars a year and also takes away your ability to apply for your public pre-K,” she said, adding that the penalty applied for a full year.

Peusch proposed changing the penalty so that a level 5 center with violations would be reduced to a level 3. Without such adjustments, she said, the state would never reach its desired 50-50 public-private participation rate by the 2029-2030 school year.

“There’s no way that you’re ever going to get … these 4-year-olds in (public-private) pre-K unless you have us to work with,” she said.

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Ruby Daniels, president of the Maryland State Family Child Care Association and the owner of Ruby Daniels Child Care in Columbia, is taking part in the mixed-delivery pre-K system but noted it was a tough adjustment for many private providers.

“It’s difficult but it’s doable,” she said, citing the Blueprint’s administrative and education requirements, which involve costs that are onerous for the notoriously ill-paid child care industry.

Another issue: When she began providing pre-K, her family child care home became a center – and, according to a Columbia ordinance, commercial centers aren’t allowed in residential areas.

Looking ahead

Morrow, Peusch and Daniels emphasized that the state must help bolster the ranks of child care employees.

“We’ve had a significant loss of child care workforce and programs across our state since 2019, so we haven’t recovered at the rate of many other states,” Peusch said.

Maryland lost 15% of its child care providers and nearly 7% of its child care spots, or roughly 15,000, between January 2020 and January 2024, according to statistics retrieved by the Local News Network.

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Mary Kane, president and CEO of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, said the child care shortage has created significant problems for businesses, including increased absenteeism, recruitment and retention difficulties and lost productivity.

Women workers, in particular, have been affected by the shortage, she said.

“It’s women that end up staying home (to care for children) and it’s taken a lot of women out of the workforce in Maryland,” Kane said.

Citing examples from other states, Kane proposed that businesses create their own child care centers.

“If you want to get mothers back into the office and get them back to work, you’re going to have to meet them halfway somehow,” Kane said. “It’s kind of a no-brainer when you really sit down and think about it. This is good for everybody.”