Sen. Charlane Oliver in 2024
Sen. Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville) is leading a charge to make child care more accessible and affordable for Tennessee families with a slate of bills she says work in tandem to mitigate what she calls a “hidden crisis.”
Three bills target the Department of Human Services’ Smart Steps program, which offers child care payment assistance for low-income families at participating centers. With Rep. Bob Freeman (D-Nashville), Oliver introduced Senate Bill 2064/House Bill 2233, which would raise the income cap for eligible families from 85 percent to 100 percent of the area median income. Another bill (SB2207/HB2822) brought by Oliver and Rep. Karen Camper (D-Memphis) would eliminate a co-pay required to be part of the program for those making under 150 percent of the federal poverty level and caps fees at 7 percent of household income for families above the federal poverty line.
The latter is set to be heard on Wednesday’s Senate Health and Welfare Committee docket.
An additional bill directed at DHS, SB1805/HB1962 brought by Oliver and Rep. Jason Powell (D-Nashville), would require the organization to revamp its calculation of reimbursement rates for child care centers accepting its Smart Steps vouchers. The current “market rate” survey underestimates the cost of child care without factoring in all of the labor costs including training, professional development and benefits, Oliver says.
“Instead of just basing the rate off of a survey that only a fraction of providers in the state fill out, we're actually basing it off of the full cost, so that day cares can actually keep the doors open,” Oliver tells Scene sister publication the Nashville Post.
Oliver says a DHS representative called her to push back on the proposed changes Friday. The department tells the Post in a statement: "Our department is currently reviewing the proposed legislation and analyzing the impact if it is passed."
Oliver, along with Rep. Torrey Harris (D-Memphis), is also proposing a new tax on transpotainment vehicles that would create a state fund to match local government funding for early childhood care. (SB1907/HB2517)
Because of low pay among those who work in child care, Oliver and Freeman’s SB2063/HB2232 would implement a two-year pilot program during which the state would allow people who stay working in child care to continue to receive government benefits like SNAP even if their pay rises above the income threshold. As part of this bill, the Tennessee Advisory Committee on Intergovernmental Relations would be tasked with studying establishing an early educator target compensation scale and whether the benefits are successful.
Looking at scarcity, cost burden and workforce issues — and how the state will try to dig out of it
“If they're trying to improve their lives and go after jobs that pay more, that leaves a worker shortage because they're leaving the child care industry, but even if they stay at the job, providers can't pay them more,” Oliver says. “Even if they do get a pay increase, that increase could kick them off of benefits because it's above the threshold for the eligibility requirements for that program, which puts that person in a more dire financial situation than what they started with. It disincentivizes people who are trying to climb out of poverty to seek self-sufficiency and economic mobility.”
All of the bills in question are headed up by Democratic legislators in both the House and Senate. Oliver says she is working on bipartisan support and points out that previous initiatives like the Tennessee Child Care Task Force saw support from Sen. Becky Massey (R-Knoxville).
“It's a hidden crisis that we're not talking about enough, because we just think that child care in general is a mother's problem,” Oliver says. “We think that it's only a family's problem, but this is a problem for employers. This is a problem for providers as well and parents. So we all need to be chipping in to find a solution and investing in the solution.”
Oliver started off this legislative session with a win — finding out that a bill she introduced in 2023 to allow campaign funds to be used for child care was not needed because it was already legal. She hopes more awareness of this fact will encourage more young parents like herself to run for office.
Even before the pandemic, profit margins were small for child care centers. In September, American Rescue Plan funds were exhausted and monthly payments that helped keep child care centers afloat ended. At the time, think tank the Century Foundation projected that 1,199 Tennessee child care centers would close as a result of American Rescue Plan Act stabilization grants ending — adding up to an estimated 89,989 children potentially losing care.
The state has stepped in to help, though the new numbers are nowhere near the $550 million in state funds (plus additional federal dollars) deployed in Tennessee over the past three years. The Biden administration requested that $16 billion be added to the federal budget to keep the ARP funding going for another year. Tennessee is administering $5 million worth of Child Care Hub pilot grants aimed at establishing newly licensed child care locations from the $220 million federal Child Care Development Block Grant. In addition, the state approved a part of a $15 million Child Care Improvement Fund in the fall and increased reimbursement rates for centers accepting child care vouchers.
