Trump Officials Weigh Child-Care Aid for Married Parents Who Stay Home
The Trump administration is drafting a major change to how federal child-care money is used. Under the proposal, some married parents who stay home with their children could receive the same type of federal assistance that has traditionally gone to day-care providers.
The New York Times, citing people familiar with the discussions and a draft document, reports that the proposal is a priority for Vice President JD Vance. It would use the Child Care and Development Fund, a program created in the 1990s to help low-income parents pay for care while they work or attend school.
Typical assistance under the program is about $9,000 per child each year. The draft would allow married couples in certain income brackets to use the money for “parent-based childcare.” That would mean one spouse stays home with the children while the other works at least 35 hours a week.
That would mark a sharp departure from the current approach. As the Times reported, “The change would create the only federal subsidy to pay parents to stay home and raise their children, one of the most significant efforts to date by the Trump administration to harness federal funds to promote a traditional view of families,”
No new act of Congress would be needed for the policy change.
The Times also wrote, “The policy change would effectively create a government incentive for parents to stay home with their children, an idea embraced as part of a broader conservative effort to advance policies that promote more mothers staying at home.”
Supporters see that incentive as a matter of fairness. If Washington is willing to subsidize paid child care, they argue, it should not automatically exclude a parent who provides that care at home.
The current system largely favors two working parents or a single parent who relies on outside care. The proposed change would recognize another family arrangement: one parent working outside the home while the other handles day-to-day care for the children.
That approach fits Vance’s long-standing criticism of government policies that push families toward institutional care. The Times noted that in 2021, Vance co-wrote an opinion essay in The Wall Street Journal arguing that day care can harm children and declaring, “Young children are clearly happier and healthier when they spend the day at home with a parent.”
Vance also wrote on Twitter that “normal Americans” want a “family policy that doesn’t shunt their kids into crap day care so they can enjoy more ‘freedom’ in the paid labor force.”
The draft policy would give married families more choice while redirecting federal support toward parents who decide that staying home is best for their children.
"Universal child care" is a massive subsidy to the lifestyle preferences of the affluent over the preferences of the middle and working class. pic.twitter.com/SwzolxORFf
— JD Vance (@JDVance) April 29, 2021