Against the Childcare Blob

During the Obama and Trump Administrations, foreign public policy wonks started referring to “The Blob.” This term, coined by Obama advisor Ben Rhodes, refers to a conglomerate of public and private actors who share the goal of projecting American power abroad. Politico describes The Blob thus:

The Blob is composed of both Democrats and Republicans — a disparate group of elite think-tankers, lawmakers, journalists and others in official Washington — who coalesce around a hawkish foreign policy, championing the old-time gospel of American leadership on the world stage.

There is also a Childcare Blob in the United States. It’s a group of “think-tankers, lawmakers, journalists and others in official Washington — who coalesce” around establishing universal childcare provided via daycare centers. The Childcare Blob, in other words, wants government-funded childcare, and it wants that childcare to be provided in what is called “center-based care,” i.e. via daycare centers (as opposed to by family or friends). The Childcare Blob is often also opposed to funding childcare provided by churches, synagogues, and small, in-home daycares.

Five things to know about the Childcare Blob:

1. Its goals are unpopular. In a 2021 survey by the Institute for Family Studies, the authors found only 11% of parents wanted their children in full-time center-based care. Most wanted their children cared for by a parent or a friend. This is only one of many surveys that show the same outcome. (Other examples are here, here, and here.) Indeed, New York City has recently backed away from its universal preschool program. This is in part because the NYC program was badly run, but also in part because it was unable to fill seats, particularly in poor and working-class neighborhoods. In November 2022, a report found that there were more than 40,000 unused seats in the program. Indeed, there is only one socioeconomic strata of parents that want their kids in full-time, institutional daycare: wealthy elites. Put another way, the rich like the goals of the Childcare Blob. Everyone else does not.

2. Despite its unpopular goals, the Childcare Blob exerts a lot of power over American family policy. To date, the apex of the Childcare Blob’s control over public policy is the Biden Administration’s Build Back Better Act. The bill contained two goals the Childcare Blob hopes to achieve: universal preschool, and a significant expansion of government-funded daycare. (There was some internal dispute amongst the Childcare Blob over this: private daycare conglomerates were dubious about the technical details, while advocacy groups supported it). To be sure, Build Back Better failed. But the Childcare Blob’s ability to shape federal legislation is impressive, and it is likely to continue to have an outsized impact on American family policy.

3. The Childcare Blob is extremely interested in “metrics” and “achievement outcomes.” Many advocacy groups interested in universal childcare rely on the below chart, created by renowned economist James Heckman. The “Heckman Curve” is used to argue that government interventions directed at young children create “more return on investment” for society than later interventions.

   

   Source

   The Childcare Blob is extremely interested in structuring universal daycare and preschool to improve academic outcomes, reduce racial inequality, decrease incarceration rates, and numerous other—certainly worthy—measurable outcomes. This focus on metrics, however, disregards critical pillars of childhood development that cannot be reduced to bar charts and academic studies. There is no metric that can measure the strength of a bond between mother and child, even though that bond is one of the most powerful determinants of a child’s well-being. Similarly, a three-year old who spends her time at home with grandma, baking cookies, “helping” in the garden and lovingly enveloped in her family culture may not test as well for “kindergarten readiness” as her peers in an academic-focused preschool, but is she less well prepared for a meaningful life?

4. The Childcare Blob sees itself as supporting women and children, but it’s not clear that its means match its goals. Many advocacy groups and researchers cite the need to increase “maternal workforce participation” in support of their push for universal childcare. However, as discussed above, most married mothers would prefer to remain home with their small children. The Blob often argues, therefore, that universal daycare would boost the GDP by convincing mothers to join the paid workforce. One think tank claimed:

   [F]ederal investments targeting child care [are] a key tool for workforce development. This workforce development promises to boost the United States’ GDP by approximately $210.2 billion—greater than the annual GDP of Iceland, Croatia, and Ukraine combined—and a corresponding $70 billion annual increase in federal tax revenue—roughly equal to the annual GDP of Bulgaria.

   Similarly, universal childcare—while it does seem to reliably boost maternal workforce participation—has very mixed results for children. For example, after Quebec introduced a cheap, universal daycare option, researchers found that “children's outcomes have worsened since the program was introduced along a variety of behavioral and health dimensions.”

5. The Childcare Blob is largely well meaning, but that doesn’t make them right. The Childcare Blob is mostly composed of well-intentioned people who are trying to help out working mothers and fathers. However, that does not mean that their end goal of universal daycare is the right one for the United States.