Annel Palacios knows that a tire shop isn’t the best environment for a toddler.
But the Salem business owner and mom of four sometimes doesn’t have a choice about bringing her two-year-old son to work at Los Primos Tires and Wheels.
“I don’t want to bring them to my work but child care is so expensive right now and I have to pay all my bills even if the shop is slow,” she said, speaking Wednesday at a meeting with Rep. Andrea Salinas, a Democrat representing Oregon’s 6th Congressional District, which includes Salem.
Salinas met with about a dozen working moms, child care providers and advocates for working families at Saint Mark Lutheran Church in Salem. The event was organized by Family Forward Oregon, a Portland-based group that advocates statewide for policies and funding to support child care and paid leave, to call attention to the need for federal action.
A 2021 expansion of Oregon’s subsidized child care program meant thousands more families were eligible to get help paying for care. But legislators didn’t allocate enough money to cover everyone who was eligible, creating a lengthy waitlist for the program.
In the Salem area, about 715 families qualify for state subsidies but are on a waitlist, according to the Department of Early Learning and Childcare. Another 500 local families have the subsidy, but are trying to find a child care provider that works for them.
And many families make too much to qualify for a subsidy, but not enough to pay market cost. Full-time care for a toddler in Oregon ranges from about $1,000 to $1,800 per month, an Oregon State University study of 2022 rates found — close to some families’ take-home pay.
Mothers at the event outlined a range of challenges they face finding child care that works for them.
In addition to cost, Palacios said her store remains open into the evening. Few care centers are available beyond standard business hours.
Her youngest son was recently diagnosed with autism, which means he needs specialized medical and child care. She teared up talking about how she worries about finding what her son needs to thrive.
“It is so much struggle,” she said. “We really need Congress to invest in child care and for you, Congresswoman, to make child care a priority.”
Salinas grew impassioned as she thanked people for sharing their stories with her.
“This is what we need to be talking about,” she said, frustration evident in her voice. She said she hears about child care issues “all the f—ing time” as she talks to communities in her district.
“It actually keeps women in the workforce, it employs women who are childcare providers,” she said during the roundtable. “What we’re talking about here is not handouts — it’s giving people the tools to thrive.”
Salinas acknowledged in an interview following the roundtable that making federal policy change will be long work. The freshman representative is campaigning for re-election, and the committees she sits on — agriculture and science, space and technology — have little say in budget-writing.
But Salinas said there are several Democratic women in the House who are interested in working on more federal money for child care. She’d like to find Republican women to make common cause with and thinks framing child care as an economic issue that empowers people to work and start businesses is a path toward winning bipartisan support for those efforts.
At the roundtable, mothers and advocates said federal help is needed so families can afford care without the workers providing that care earning poverty-level wages.
“Child care is actual infrastructure. Just like roads and bridges,” said Candice Vickers, executive director of Family Forward. “Our system right now isn’t funded like other infrastructure.”
Child care is a top issue for local farmworkers, said Reyna Lopez, executive director of PCUN, Oregon’s farmworker union. A growing share of the workforce speaks Indigenous languages like Mixteco or Mayan, rather than Spanish or English, posing an additional challenge in finding care.
A lack of options means local farmworkers sometimes bring their children into the fields with them.
“This cannot continue to be the reality in America, in the richest country in the world,” Lopez said.
Correction: This article misstated the history of Oregon’s daycare subsidy waitlist. The program has had a waitlist on and off for years. The fall 2023 waitlist was the first since the program’s expansion. Salem Reporter apologizes for the error.
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
