Citing the need to expand access to affordable, high-quality childcare across North Carolina, Gov. Josh Stein issued an executive order on Monday formally establishing the Task Force for Child Care and Early Education.

He made the announcement during a visit to Kate’s Korner, a Durham childcare center.

“When we invest in childcare, everyone benefits,” Stein, a Democrat, said in a press release. “Parents get to keep working and keep building their careers. Small businesses can keep their productive workers. And most importantly, our kids get a nurturing and supportive environment where they can thrive during their formative years, one that will shape their entire educational trajectory,” 

The task force, co-chaired by Lt. Gov. Rachel Hunt and Sen. Jim Burgin, R-Harnett, will identify strengths and gaps in the current system, recommend key public and private investment in childcare infrastructure, and work to recruit and retain a strong childcare workforce. It will submit reports and recommendations to Stein and the public.  

Hunt made affordable childcare one of the centerpieces of her election campaign.

In a press release issued last month, she said she wants to build and lead a coalition of business leaders, families, and policymakers to make childcare more affordable by renewing and expanding the NC Tri-Share pilot program. It allows parents in several counties who work at participating businesses to split the cost of childcare evenly between themselves, their employer, and state government.

The General Assembly directed funding to the program through the 2023 budget. NC Tri-Share is currently funded through October 2025.

Lawmakers allocated $900,000 for the North Carolina Partnership for Children to divide among three regional hubs (local partnerships) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023-2024 and FY 2024-2025.

The pilot program, which began in 2024, is currently set to expire at the end of 2026.

Pandemic-era federal childcare subsidies have all but dried up. The $24 billion one-time “stabilization grants” for childcare centers were part of the American Rescue Plan passed by Congress and the Biden administration in 2021, added due to COVID business closures. The grants expired over the summer and the General Assembly released the final payment of $67.5 million in September.

The results of a survey conducted last spring by the NC Chamber reveal an industry in crisis:

  • Three in 10 programs are expected to close when the stabilization grants sunset. That is more than 1,500 programs — an estimated 30% of family childcare and 28% of childcare centers.
  • The survey found that 88% of programs expect to increase parent fees.
  • About two-thirds of programs expect difficulty in hiring comparably experienced and educated staff.
  • More than half of the respondents have already raised tuition fees in anticipation of the sunset of the grants.
  • More than four in 10 expected to close or combine classrooms.

A spokesperson for NC Chamber emailed the following statement to Carolina Journal, “While the NC Chamber does not advocate for funding, we continue to support and advocate for sustainable early childhood education policy reforms and innovations that address the growing workforce challenges of the business community.”

While lawmakers are getting pressure from all sides to increase taxpayer-funded government subsidies for a specific industry, it is notable that most of these calls are not for childcare vouchers for families to spend on the best fit for their child but rather for government subsidies for childcare facilities. Carolina Journal editor in chief Donna King argued in a recent editorial that subsidies in any industry raise the overall prices for consumers, which could inadvertently make the cost crisis in childcare worse.

In a Carolina Journal poll conducted in May, 221 out of 600 respondents (36.9%) said they would like lawmakers to pass tax credits for childcare when asked how the childcare gap should be funded when pandemic funds ran out. Only 16.9%, or 102, thought legislators should provide government subsidies.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated.