BALTIMORE — Mindy Bowman started online classes to get her psychology degree because she feels it will make her a better mom. To meet that goal, she sends her 2-year-old daughter to day care three days a week, which costs $474 a month.

That’s after the child care scholarship Bowman receives as a single parent going to school full time, getting ready to start an internship and raising two other children.

“It’s almost like you’re paying rent for your child to go to school,” Bowman said. “For a long time, I didn’t do it because I wanted to stay home with my kids; it was cheaper and I enjoy that. But then I wanted to go back to school. And now I’m realizing, wait, but I really can’t afford it because it’s so expensive.”

Bowman’s child care scholarship is part of the “largest public investment in child care” the state makes, said Laura Weeldreyer, executive director of the Maryland Family Network, a nonprofit that connects families with child care.

According to the Maryland State Department of Education, as of mid-March more than 22,000 families were receiving financial assistance to pay for care for nearly 33,000 kids.

Enrollment in the scholarship program is on the rise as care options aimed at low-income families shutter. Even as the state invests record numbers of people in the program, the model of private child care is still fundamentally broken, experts and advocates say. Child care is becoming less affordable while providers still don’t make enough money. And the high costs may be keeping some Maryland mothers from returning to work, potentially causing ripple effects throughout the economy.

“The private provision of child care is a market failure. It’s simply not profitable to care for children under 5,” Kathryn Anne Edwards, a labor economist and policy researcher, said.

The Maryland General Assembly in April passed a $63 billion budget that allocates $328.5 million for the child care scholarship program, more than five times 2024’s original amount. The budget also sets aside $218 million in emergency funding for the current fiscal year to cover shortfalls.

According to reviews of state budgets going back to 2007, the first year a line item for the child care scholarship appeared in the budget, 2025’s funding is the largest in the state’s history by a wide margin.

The child care scholarship program, formerly known as the child care subsidy, “helps eligible families in Maryland pay for high-quality child care and early education programs.” According to income guidelines, a family of four making up to $90,000 and applying for the first time would be eligible if factors such as working or going to school were met. Parents may still be responsible for some of the cost, as Bowman is.

...continued

©2024 The Baltimore Sun. Visit at baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.