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When my family moved for the third time with three young children, we found ourselves facing the same challenge again: long child care waitlists and no certainty about when a spot would open.
Like many working parents, we needed dependable child care so we could work, meet our responsibilities and provide stability for our family. Instead, we found ourselves navigating uncertainty, wondering when a provider might have room and whether we would be able to keep everything else on track in the meantime.
Every working parent understands this reality. Child care is not a luxury. It is often the difference between accepting a job, keeping a job or falling behind. When safe, reliable, affordable care is unavailable, work becomes uncertain, household budgets tighten, employers lose dependable workers and communities feel the strain.
That is why Gov. Mike Braun’s recent $200 million investment in child care is a practical and welcome step for Hoosier families. By expanding access to Child Care and Development Fund vouchers, the plan is expected to help roughly 14,000 additional children move off waitlists and bring total enrollment to about 57,000.
That matters because child care is not only a family issue. It is a workforce issue, an economic development issue and a community strength issue.
The best conservative solutions do not grow government for its own sake. They help families work, children thrive and communities become stronger. This approach recognizes that parents want the dignity of work and the ability to provide for their children. It also recognizes that employers need a workforce that can reliably show up.
Those of us who believe in limited government should also recognize the difference between dependency and empowerment. Policies that remove barriers to work, responsibility and self-sufficiency are fundamentally different from those that create long-term reliance. When designed well, child care assistance is not about replacing personal responsibility. It is about helping families meet it.
There is more work ahead. Indiana’s child care challenges were not created overnight, and they will not be solved with one investment. Provider shortages, workforce challenges within the child care industry and rising costs remain real concerns for families across our state. We should also recognize the child care professionals who make this system work every day. Expanding access for families must be matched by continued efforts to recruit, retain and support the workforce caring for Indiana’s youngest learners.
But progress is often achieved one practical step at a time, and this is a meaningful step in the right direction: targeted support focused on working families, with a clear connection to opportunity, responsibility and economic growth.
If Indiana wants to be the best place to build a future, we have to make it possible for families to build one here.
Gov. Braun’s child care plan puts families first, strengthens the workforce and acknowledges a reality every parent understands: When families have access to dependable child care, everyone benefits.•
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Lucas is treasurer and former chair of the Indiana Republican Party.
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