There are now more than 12,700 kids on Arizona Department of Economic Security's waitlist for childcare assistance — and 500 of them were added to the list in the last month alone.
It’s happening as the cost of living continues to rise, federal funding has expired and advocates say more state investment is needed.
Nonprofits like Children’s Action Alliance have been urging leaders to make funding childcare a priority in budget negotiations that are happening now. Kyrstyn Paulat is the director of early learning and education with Children’s Action Alliance, and she joined The Show to talk about it.
Full conversation
LAUREN GILGER: Good morning, Kyrstyn.
KYRSTYN PAULAT: Hi, good morning. Thanks for having me.
LAURE GILGER: Thank you for coming in. So, tell us first, what are families — 12,000-plus families here who are on this waitlist — what are they experiencing now? How does this impact their lives?
KYRSTYN PAULAT: I mean, it makes families have to choose and make that really difficult decision on how they’re able to balance work and afford childcare.
So, childcare right now, on average in our state, is upwards of $15,000 to $16,000 a year, which is comparable to in-state tuition at any of our public universities. But the difference between that is ... families do have that opportunity to set aside money for their children to go to college. Families with young children do not have that same luxury.
And we have about 61% of families right now that have all available parents that are working that have children under the age of 5.
LAUREN GILGER: ... So, I mean, my first thought, 500 in just a month alone, like is this because summer began? Is this cyclical, or is more happening here?
KYRSTYN PAULAT: I mean, we — it is, you know, very much due to summer approaching and families really trying to find out how they’re going to be able to work with school being out. But I will say this has been a pretty big jump than what we have seen in years past.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. So, lots of factors have led to this. I mentioned just, you know, the economy, inflation, cost of living problems, gas prices way up — all of that kind of stuff impacts families and what they can afford to spend money on. So, that might be a factor here.
But also, we’ve seen, you know, pandemic-era federal funding still not come back, right?
KYRSTYN PAULAT: Yes, that is correct. So, before this waitlist was implemented in August 2024, we did receive federal funding to help uplift the childcare sector during the pandemic.
And when we lost that money, so we’re on two years now, our state has not been able to replace that. We have seen pretty good amount of investment in the last two years, but the reality is that we need more.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. Yeah. How much are you looking at here? What do you need from the state level?
KYRSTYN PAULAT: So, both in Gov. [Katie] Hobbs’ executive budget proposal earlier this year and that we actually saw it mirrored in the legislative proposal just last month, was $45 million. Which we are very much supportive of. But that’s the same amount that we got last year.
And we do know that with the rising costs and, you know, the affordability issues that we’re experiencing right now as a state and as a country, anything that is the same amount that we received last year is essentially a cut, right?
And so, earlier this year, Rep. [Sarah] Liguori, she did present a bill for $160 million for the Childcare Assistance Program.
LAUREN GILGER: OK. Where did that land?
KYRSTYN PAULAT: That bill did not get a hearing. So, as we are going through budget negotiations right now, that is why a lot of early childhood advocates are really stressing the need for not just the support of that $45 million, but in for us to fully fund the Childcare Assistance Program, we do need $160 million. Which I know is not an insignificant ask, but it is what the the need is.
And we have seen other states make this type of investment that either has a similar political makeup to us, or actually has a more conservative makeup. So, just last month, Indiana, they put in $200 million to their Childcare Assistance Program.
LAUREN GILGER: So, I mean, this though is coming at a time when Arizona’s facing a pretty significant budget deficit. Lots of programs are looking at cuts. Do you have confidence this will remain or be increased in the current budget proposal?
KYRSTYN PAULAT: I think that there is a huge stress in multiple stakeholders really stressing the need for more support for working families right now. And I know you had discussed the rising costs of housing and groceries, utilities and more.
But the reality is that if people — especially the 61% of of families that have all available parents are working — don’t have childcare, they have to make those really tough decisions on how they’re going to keep their jobs and also have somebody watch their kid in a safe environment.
LAUREN GILGER: So, there are economic ripple effects there. ... You think people people leave the workforce to take care of the kids, essentially.
KYRSTYN PAULAT: Oh, absolutely. Parents, they reduce their work hours, they leave jobs and they turn down better opportunities, and it costs our state billions of dollars each year in lost productivity and tax revenue.
LAUREN GILGER: What about the supply of childcare, Kyrstyn? Because I mean, I know I’ve done lots of conversations over the past several years since the pandemic about the difficulty for childcare centers to even stay afloat, even with that federal funding when it was when it was coming through.
I mean, if these 12,700 kids were to be taken off this waitlist and put into the system, are there enough providers to give them care?
KYRSTYN PAULAT: I mean, there’s certainly not enough providers, and I think that’s why helping fully fund the Childcare Assistance Program is essential. Right now in our state, we are experiencing a pretty significant childcare gap. So, statewide, it’s at 16.5%, and that identifies the potential need of childcare based on the number of slots that are available in that more formal setting and the number of kiddos that could potentially need childcare. But we do see that disproportionately that number grow in more rural areas of the state where there is very significant childcare deserts.
LAUREN GILGER: Right. So, rural areas, we’re talking about people, you know, with low income, lower incomes. What are the requirements? What do you have to meet in order to qualify for a childcare help?
KYRSTYN PAULAT: So, there’s, at the statewide level, there’s three different programs. So, the Childcare Assistance Program, this one does serve the most amount of families in our state. So, they — to qualify for the program, you have to be at 165% of the federal poverty level, which essentially equates to a family of four that makes $53,000 a year.
We also have Head Start, which is 100% federally funded, but they also have been flat funded over the last couple of years, and that’s what kind of the proposal looks like this year.
And then First Things First, which is our early childhood program, they serve about 5,000 children with their Quality First scholarships. But, you know, very similar to some of the funding issues we’re experiencing with the Childcare Assistance Program and Head Start, their revenue is also decreasing because they’re primarily funded through a tobacco tax.
LAUREN GILGER: Right, right. We’ve talked about that on The Show as well. And before I let you go, I want to talk about the context in which this is happening, as well. Not just in terms of inflation and, you know, sort of economic pressures from the outside, but I mean, we’re watching cuts come down from the federal level to lots of safety net programs right now. SNAP has seen major cuts, especially here in Arizona. Lots of other cuts coming, Medicaid cuts coming. What does that picture kind of add to this?
KYRSTYN PAULAT: No, I mean, it’s just, it’s taking away additional financial options for families while increasing administrative burden on a lot of agencies as well.
So ... what we’re seeing is, you know, children are losing food access. In Arizona, that’s 200,000 children have lost their access to SNAP within the last year. And, you know, we’re seeing some of that, you know, potentially could happen with Medicaid as those cuts do come down.
So, you know, I think with the affordability issues that we’re having right now and families just need some type of help, and being able to offset some of these costs in some way would be so beneficial to working families. Getting kids into early quality early learning opportunities so that they can enter kindergarten ready to thrive. Help parents be able to thrive in the workforce. Businesses can help keep and retain workers. And our state continues to grow economically as well with most of the productivity back in.
LAUREN GILGER: All right. We’ll leave it there for now. Kyrstyn Paulat is the director of early learning and education with Children’s Action Alliance, joining us to talk about childcare funding. Kirsten, thank you very much for coming on. I appreciate it.
KYRSTYN PAULAT: Thank you so much.
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