Parents are struggling with daycare costs amid the pandemic but assistance could be on its way

Parents are struggling to pay for childcare during the pandemic. While many are thankful to still have their jobs, they often don’t have money left to pay for rising daycare costs.

Luckily, there is $40 billion dollars in President Biden’s Stimulus plan to help childcare facilities and parents, which includes a tax credit for families.

Victoria Garrett is a single mom with four boys, ranging from a few months to four-years-old.  Like so many have, she lost her job due to the pandemic. but, unlike some women, she found another job, though it is part-time.

But, anytime she does go to work, she still needs someone to look after her boys.

Garrett was so scared to lose her job that she went back to work one day after her C-section.

“I was so afraid to be the next one, especially being a single mom just having a baby. I was so eager to get back, I didn’t want them to think,’ ah we can do this without her,'” she said.

Weeks later, they realized, they indeed could do this without her.

“He gave me a call and said he wasn’t able to keep that position anymore because of covid and loss of hours,” she said.

Her administrative assistant job was gone and Garrett went home to her little boys.

“I applied for unemployment,” said Garrett. “I was taking out of my savings, I got the LeeCares act. I was putting in applications everywhere, going for interviews, I was looking actively for another job.”

Victoria was able to get government assistance, to a part-time job working for Careersource, a company that helps unemployed people find work.

Even with the help, even with the job, it wasn’t enough.

“Finding a way to provide childcare, that is the most stressful thing, even when I got this job, how am I going to pay $200 a week?” Garret said.

The Biden administration wants women back to work full-time. That’s why the President’s $1.9 Trillion stimulus proposal includes $40 Billion for childcare assistance.

“Kids are expensive! Daycare in itself, that’s almost rent! My rent is $900 and I pay $800 in childcare,” she said.

Thanks to LeeCARES and that part-time job Garrett is surviving. But, without full-time childcare, she cannot get full-time work.

Senator Marco Rubio opposes the PResident’s plan saying ina recent Op-Ed that Biden opposed similar handouts with “no strings attached” when he was in the Senate. Rubio, instead, favors a tax credit directly tied to work.