On Tuesday, October 24, the Center on Child and Family Policy and the Niskanen Center hosted a virtual discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of Build Back Better’s early care and education legislation and the best path forward for federal policy.
The Build Back Better Act of 2021 featured two early care and education programs, described by the Biden administration as “the most transformative investment in children and caregiving in generations.” While the programs did not make it into law, the legislation lays out a detailed blueprint of an increasingly influential vision for federal early childhood policy, closely similar to the Child Care for Working Families Act, recently re-introduced in the House and Senate.
Improving the environments where children spend their earliest years and helping parents balance work with raising children are crucial policy goals. Yet recent analysis by Katharine Stevens argues that Build Back Better prescribes the wrong approach to this important issue.
We were fortunate to have Stevens participate in the discussion with an impressive roster of panelists:
Joshua McCabe, Director of Social Policy, Niskanen Center (Moderator)
Patrick T. Brown, Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center
Natalie Renew, Executive Director, Home Grown
Arthur Rolnick, Associate Economist, University of Minnesota, and former Director of Research, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
Katharine B. Stevens, Founder and CEO, Center on Child and Family Policy