Commentary by state Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Centralia

Washington is in the midst of a child care crisis — and families across Southwest Washington are paying the price. In communities throughout the 20th Legislative District — from Centralia to Vancouver — parents are struggling to find and afford safe, reliable and high-quality child care.

Many Washington communities are, or are becoming, child care deserts. About 63% of Washington state residents live in what’s defined as a child care desert — regions where there are either zero licensed child care providers or more than three times as many children under 5 than available child care slots. But, availability is only part of the crisis.

According to Child Care Aware of Washington’s 2024 data, the cost of care in rural communities, such as Lewis County, ranges from $1,100 to $1,600 per month for infants and toddlers. In many areas of the state, child care costs over 20% of the median household income — a rate that far surpasses what most families can afford.

Infant care costs in Washington state are the fifth-highest in the nation and third-most expensive for married couples. Toddler care for ages up to 4 years old in Washington is also pricier than the national average at all levels, including center and in-home care.

Child care isn’t just a convenience — it’s a critical component of early childhood development and family economic stability. High-quality early learning environments provide children with a strong foundation for success in school and beyond. Research consistently shows that children who attend high-quality preschool or child care programs are more likely to enter kindergarten ready to learn, with better social, emotional, and academic skills.

Child care also enables parents to pursue employment and educational opportunities, providing the stability families need to thrive. Without access to affordable care, many parents — particularly mothers — are forced to reduce work hours, delay their education or leave the workforce altogether. In rural areas like ours, where child care is scarce, these difficult choices are becoming all too common. To end intergenerational poverty, Washington needs to create an environment that supports families’ success and accessible quality child care is part of that mission.

Despite the urgency of the crisis, the Democratic majority in Olympia failed to make child care a priority again this year. Instead, they passed Engrossed Substitute House Bill 2081, which increases the Business & Occupation (B&O) tax on child care providers from 0.484% to 0.5%. While it may seem like a minor adjustment, this increase places an additional financial burden on small, family-run providers, who are already operating on razor-thin margins. These are the very providers holding child care systems together in rural towns across Southwest Washington. A tax hike of any kind risks even more closures and fewer options for working families.

Even more troubling, Democrats chose to delay critical funding for the Fair Start for Kids Act, a bipartisan program passed in 2021 to make child care more affordable, expand access, and increase provider wages. Postponing implementation means less support for families, less investment in early learning, and continued strain on a workforce that is already underpaid and overworked.

These decisions send a clear message: child care is not a priority in the current budget or policy framework. It hasn’t been in many years, and that’s unacceptable.

We should be doing the opposite. We need to:

• Reinvest B&O tax revenue directly into child care expansion and quality improvement;

• Support providers in child care deserts with grants and workforce recruitment tools;

• Fund Fair Start for Kids, and make early learning access a promise, not a placeholder;

• Reduce overregulation of the siting, building, and expansion of child care facilities;

• Treat child care as infrastructure, the building blocks to a quality K-12 education.

As your state representative, I will continue to advocate for a child care system that supports parents, empowers providers, and gives every child the opportunity to succeed. Southwest Washington families deserve more than Band-Aid fixes or burdensome taxes—they deserve real, lasting solutions that reflect the importance of early learning and working families.

Let’s build a future where no family in our region has to choose between a paycheck and peace of mind. Together, we can make that a reality.

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