Child care costs in Texas pose a major challenge. These panelists discussed potential solutions.

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The child care industry in Texas is in a state of crisis, panelists said Wednesday at a Texas Tribune event. But, they added, there are ways to reverse this challenging trend that benefit working parents, their employers and the state as a whole.

The panel, moderated by Tribune health care reporter Karen Brooks Harper and produced by the Tribune in partnership with the LBJ School of Public Affairs’ Urban Lab, dived into the current picture of child care in the state.

Child care rates are increasing with inflation. Parents are often forced to choose accessible care over quality care. With an average wage of $12 per hour, child care workers may set aside 30%-35% of their annual income to afford child care for their own children.

Emily Williams Knight, the CEO of the Texas Restaurant Association and Education Foundation, a member of the Employers for Childcare Task Force, said that as the largest private industry in Texas, the restaurant industry must use its loud voice to advocate for more funding and strategy around accessible child care.

“We need to harness the power of all the entrepreneurs across the state and go to the Texas Legislature with one voice, one plan of action, aggregated.” Knight said. “Our elected officials, I truly believe, across the aisle, will understand the economic impact to businesses in Texas, the long-term education impact.”

Steven Pedigo, the director of the LBJ Urban Lab, researches how businesses, advocates and Texas’ state and local governments can work together to improve child care policy in the state. Pedigo noted a recent collaboration in Kentucky, where the state’s General Assembly involved its private sector in the process of changing the state’s child care policies.

“They basically called the business community up to the table and said, ‘You want us to incentivize this issue, we’re going to incentivize you to get in the game,’ ” Pedigo said. “For employees that make 50% below the median state wage, they’re reimbursing child care up to 100%.”

The key to mobilizing policymakers, Pedigo said, is to reframe the issue of reforming child care policy as an opportunity for statewide growth.

“When we think about the child care challenge across the state of Texas, we should not just be thinking of it as an economic development challenge,” he said. “How do we think about it as a workforce opportunity, and as an educational opportunity as well?”

Federal pandemic relief money for child care providers was suspended in September 2023. Texas child care centers can receive state funding through Texas Rising Star (TRS), a child care quality-rating improvement program under the Texas Workforce Commission.

Liza Gomez, the vice president of Ready Children at United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County, helps child care providers gain TRS certifications and increase their workers’ wages. Gomez described how one center’s work culture shifted with United Way’s assistance, as they instituted changes including an average raise of approximately $3 an hour.

“These teachers, on their own, were doing additional professional development. It was not being asked of them,” Gomez said. “They were actually seeing a potential and a future in this field, as opposed to being a temporary worker.”

Christina Collazo, the founder and executive director of Todos Juntos, a free, dual-generation learning center for English-language learner families in Austin, also spoke to the broad benefits of greater investment in the child care industry. The center provides bilingual, early education classes for children ages 1 to 4 years old, as well as English classes and workforce-readiness programs for adult learners. Historically relying on funding from local family foundations and individual donors, the nonprofit’s funding model is changing.

“Recently we’ve been more funded by corporate partners, I think because this really has been leveled up to a workforce issue,” Collazo said. “This is actually the first year we’ve ever received government funding in 15 years.”

Panelists emphasized the important role of Texans in lobbying the Texas Legislature to prioritize changes in child care policy. This is especially important prior to the next legislative session in January 2025, Pedigo said, He added that nonprofits and corporations are doing innovative work, but more investment is needed.

“We as Texans have to put some pressure on our legislators,” he said. “We’ve got to get some statewide policy solutions in place and make this a priority.”

Disclosure: Texas Restaurant Association, University of Texas at Austin and University of Texas at Austin - LBJ School of Public Affairs have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.