Once you hear a certain number, it sticks in your memory. For each child under five, the federal government spends about $2,500 annually on child care and early education. That is roughly 50% of the average for Europe. It is less than the investments made by 32 other developed countries. And it comes to a nation where families already pay about $15,000 a year for private full-time childcare, sometimes more, depending on the zip code and whether you’re fortunate enough to find a spot at all.
No one in Washington seems eager to do the math aloud, even though it’s not difficult. According to estimates based on research from the Economic Policy Institute, American parents with children under five spend roughly $42 billion a year on early care and education. The total amount spent by the federal, state, and local governments is approximately $34 billion. Families are spending more money than the government on a service that is considered public infrastructure in most wealthy countries. That disparity, which is readily apparent, explains nearly everything about how UNICEF ranked the United States 40th out of 41 wealthy nations in terms of childcare.
Any way you look at the numbers, they all lead to the same conclusion. Just to keep a child in some kind of care while the parents are at work, the average American household with young children must pay about $6,000 out of pocket annually, or roughly $500 per month. The parents who completely leave the workforce are not included in that figure; according to EPI, they lose out on $35 billion in earnings annually. The majority of those indirect costs are borne by married women. Due to their limited options, single mothers frequently choose whatever care they can find and afford. Neither result appears to be the result of a deliberate system.
The origins of this mess may be deeper than most people think. In fact, the federal government constructed public daycare facilities during World War II to allow mothers to work in shipyards and factories. It was once described by economist Claudia Goldin as the nation’s only federally funded preschool program that is nearly universal. These centers closed after the war. Nothing took their place. A bipartisan bill establishing universal childcare was passed by Congress in 1971. Nixon used a speechwriter’s advice to veto it, cautioning against “communal approaches to child rearing.” The veto was upheld. No federal law has come as close in fifty-five years.
In the meantime, the Nordic nations—Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden—built what the United States declined to. Families there pay anywhere from $0 to $4,000 annually for childcare. Young children’s public enrollment ranges from 65 to 80 percent. Childcare providers are paid professionally. Funding for public early childhood education amounts to about 1% of GDP. That percentage is 0.3 percent in the US. It’s not a subtle difference.
According to a 2026 Center for American Progress analysis, 46% of American children under six still reside in what researchers refer to as “child care deserts,” which are places where there are so few licensed slots that more than three young children vie for each spot. Although that represents a small improvement from 51% in 2018, the term “improvement” seems excessive when it still encompasses almost half of the nation. Ninety-six percent of young children in Alaska reside in deserts. 95% in Hawaii. Idaho, 83%.
There’s a sense that the system was never designed rather than malfunctioning. Waitlists lasting a year or more, second jobs, and hybrid schedules are all challenges faced by parents. Since the 1990s, the cost of childcare has increased twice as quickly as overall inflation. Despite the lack of clear data, it is highly likely that some families will incur debt as a result. Others covertly forfeit retirement funds or drastically reduce monthly spending, bearing a burden their government decided decades ago it wouldn’t bear. Following the Nordic countries’ lead forty years ago, a few states and cities have begun to adopt public models. It remains to be seen if that movement will become widespread. However, whether Washington recognizes the receipt or not, the cost of doing nothing—$15,000 per child annually, mostly borne by the least fortunate—keeps mounting.
