Nebraska families feel financial strain at crossroads of child care and career

Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part series on child care costs airing this week on 10/11. Stay tuned on Thursday, July 30 to hear from Nebraska providers about the realities of providing safe care to the state’s children.

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) — Families in Nebraska are facing a child care crisis that begins months before a baby is born, forcing parents to choose between careers and child care — a problem that First Five Nebraska says costs the state’s economy nearly $2 billion every year.

Lincoln state Sen. George Dungan and his wife welcomed a son, Stellan, earlier this year.

Both work full time, and Dungan also runs a law practice.

He said his family falls into a gray area — earning too much to qualify for assistance but not enough to reasonably afford care.

Dungan said providers need to make living wages while families need affordable options to remain in the workforce.

He called the costs excessive and said there is no easy solution.

“We also know that people can’t put their careers on hold,” Dungan said. “And so it’s important that we both encourage folks who want to start families to do so, but we have to make sure that our society is built in such a way that we encourage people to stay in the workplace across the entire spectrum.”

Dungan said child care affordability is one of the few issues that does not follow partisan or rural-urban lines.

Because of the costs, Dungan said he stays home with Stellan three days a week while compressing his legislative and legal work into the remaining two days.

“We can’t afford child care right now,” Dungan said. “And so I’m home with Stellan [on] Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and try to cram everything else for my job, both as a state senator and then also as an attorney, onto Tuesdays and Thursdays as best we can.”

Lincoln mother Alyssa Payton has three children and equally as many jobs.

“I have my full-time job. I have a part-time job. I own a sourdough bakery business, and we both donate plasma,” Payton said. “We...do a lot.”

Payton said her family spends more than double its mortgage on child care each month.

“Right now, our biweekly is just under $2,000,” Payton said, later adding, “It’s an entire person’s yearly income to pay for child care. And it’s not sustainable.”

During the last legislative session, state Sen. Wendy DeBoer’s LB 304 kept child care subsidies in place.

Dungan said the measure only maintains the status quo and that he is hopeful the legislature can address affordability in the next session.

First Five Nebraska offers an affordability calculator to visualize the financial impact.

In Lancaster County, a family of four earning the county’s median income would spend about 20% of its income on care for two children. For the same family at 185% of the federal poverty line, that figure jumps to 36%.

“The degree to which a community is thriving depends on its children,” said Anne Brandt, executive director of Lincoln Littles. “And so I think that we really have to think about this as a community issue.”

Lincoln Littles has given out more than $5 million in tuition assistance to keep Nebraska families in the workplace.

Dungan said a broader approach that addresses issues on the front end is needed.

“I think that involves making sure we have good-paying jobs. It means making sure we have affordable housing,” Dungan said. “But all of those things play into making sure that Nebraska is a place where people can raise a family and want to raise a family.”

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