Child Care Aware
®
of America | President Trump’s Child Care Proposal
President Trump’s Child Care Proposal
What’s Included in the President’s Plan?
President Trump’s child care plan, which he proposed last fall during his
campaign for the presidency, seeks to help families gain access to quality
programs through changes in the tax code. More explicitly, his proposal would
allow parents with up to four children to deduct child care expenses from their
income taxes. In addition, the President proposes six weeks of paid maternity leave
(fathers are not eligible) and includes a rebate of up to $1,200 annually for low-
income families. Families who earn more than $500,000 would not be eligible for a
tax break, and single parents making more than $250,000 would also not qualify.
President Trump proposes using unemployment insurance as a “pay for” to
nance his maternity leave plan.
Where President Trump’s Child Care Plan Falls Short
While the President’s attempt to address child care is admirable, his plan is not
designed to change the status quo or help lower income families, and will do little
to address the issue that we currently have regarding limited access to quality care.
In fact, President Trump’s proposal is awed on many fronts:
n Paid leave is only for mothers – fathers are not included – and has the
potential to disadvantage women in the workplace (40 percent of women are
breadwinners);
n Assuming paid leave is around 40 percent of actual wages, many low-income
women would not be able to afford to take this time off. We need a federal child
care policy that includes a true mechanism for funding paid leave;
n Tax deductions typically benefit more affluent families since the bottom 40-47
percent of the population doesn’t actually make enough money to pay federal
income taxes;
n Child care spending accounts are less fraught than health care spending
accounts because child care costs are easier to predict. However, this type of
account assumes that most working families have the capacity to save; and
n The President’s plan would cost between $200 to $600 billion over the next 10
years, with most of these funds going to higher-income families.
President Trump’s
child care plan
seeks to help
families gain access
to quality programs
through changes in
the tax code.
This one-pager was completed by staff on Child Care Aware
®
of America’s policy team. For more information on child
care policy, research, and legislation visit http://usa.childcareaware.org.
