E&W Blog

One of the strong benefits of child care in this country is the fact that parents have the opportunity to choose a provider that works best for them – whether that involves placing a child in a provider’s home, a child care center, or a child care run by a faith-based provider.

The child care community and parents who are rightfully worried that America’s diverse system built on parental preference is about to be obliterated by the Biden child care plan. Democrats do not want parents to be able to choose their providers. They want Washington to decide who should care for children and restrict faith-based providers whenever possible. Democrats have littered this bill with provisions that will limit parental choice and shut down faith-based providers.

In a December 2020 national survey, the Bipartisan Policy Center found that 53 percent of parents who used center-based providers used faith-based centers. That same survey showed that the primary factors for parents choosing faith-based providers were the quality of the caregivers, facility cleanliness, trust, values of the provider, safe setting, and opportunities for cognitive development.

Today, Republican Member of the Education and Labor Committee Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) offered an amendment protecting the faith-based providers in the child care system from limiting their participation and being treated unfairly. Every Republican Member of the Committee supported the amendment.

In America, parents get to make the decision of choosing a provider that works best for them.

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