Advocate: Unspent TANF funds could ease Mississippi child care crisis

Cathy Grace, an early childhood specialist at the North Mississippi Education Consortium, wrote that Mississippi could largely fix its child care crisis by freeing unspent federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds for child care, without additional state funding. Grace made the argument in a guest essay for Mississippi Today Ideas.

Grace wrote that decisions within the Mississippi Department of Human Services have left about 20,000 families on a waiting list for child care. She said state officials have told lawmakers the TANF funds can legally be used for child care through a direct spending transfer and that the account is thought to hold more than $100 million, though the department has not released a current figure. Grace wrote that about $60 million would cover eligible families and keep child care centers operating.

Grace noted federal law governing TANF and the Child Care and Development Block Grant requires parents to work, attend school or serve as foster parents to receive child care assistance. She said the state currently limits eligibility to families at 85% or below the state median income, or $51,424 for a family of four. Grace wrote that during the COVID-19 pandemic roughly $200 million in federal grants went to the Mississippi Department of Human Services to help child care centers stay open, and that while those special funds have ended, overall federal child care funding has returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Grace cited surveys and data to underscore the need. She wrote that a 2024 survey by the Mississippi Economic Council found 77% of businesses reported child care as a problem and 44% said it was their biggest problem. She also wrote that more child care programs closed after the pandemic funds were depleted than during any other recent period.

In the essay, Grace urged Gov. Tate Reeves and Mississippi Department of Human Services Director Robert Anderson to provide leadership, and recommended a state law requiring unspent federal TANF funds be transferred annually to child care programs. She wrote that the transfer could be approved by the department director and would not require a new appropriation, and estimated that if 7% of parents now out of the workforce for child care reasons returned to work, the state could gain about $1.2 billion a year. Grace has worked in early childhood education for more than 50 years, taught at four state universities and retired from Mississippi State University as professor emerita, according to her essay.

Source: Original Article