While former Gov. Eliot Spitzer focused on expanding pre-kindergarten and children's health coverage, he had not yet committed the state to creating a comprehensive child care policy.
In fact, in a meeting with The Post-Standard shortly before he resigned from office, Spitzer said, ". . . certainly we will move on to the child care issue . . . next year if we can afford it." But developing a strategic child care agenda, one that finds every possible way to support struggling families, is an urgent mission.
There are parents throughout the state, like Vanessa and Shaun Scott of Bridgeport, who are overwhelmed by child care costs.
The Scotts, profiled by Family Life Editor Gina Chen last week, were earning a combined salary of $43,000. That qualified them for child care assistance. Still, they paid $827 monthly for their two children, ages 1 and 3 more than their mortgage.
Then Vanessa got a raise, and their income increased to $47,000, which only amounted to about $15 more per week after higher union dues and taxes. The raise made the Scotts ineligible for child care assistance, which would have driven their weekly child care payments up to $1,223 a month.
Because they can no longer afford licensed care, they now rely on a tenuous child care network that includes a substitute teacher, an ill relative and Vanessa's grandmother, who also looks after her husband, who is in a nursing home.
So parents are rewarded for working hard and advancing at their jobs with fewer and more costly child care options.
Of course the state cannot pay every parent's child care bill. But state and local officials, along with economic development leaders, ought to be making affordable and reliable child care a priority.
To her credit, Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney is paying attention to the problem. Last week, the county gave 46 child care centers that provide service to low-income children a 4 percent increase in subsidized rates. Mahoney said the action was only a first step in addressing child care issues.
Gov. David Paterson has a massive "to-do" list, but he should make room near the top for developing an innovative child care strategy.