2026-02-21T13:00:33.919Z / CNN
宾夕法尼亚州埃默斯——
达娜·埃尔德里奇（Dana Eldridge）和保罗·米勒（Paul Miller）在经营了近十年颇受欢迎的武术学校和夏令营后，于2005年开设了他们的第一家日托中心。在接下来的15年里，他们又开设了四个新校区，并将服务对象从学龄儿童扩展到包括婴儿和幼儿。在鼎盛时期，“主动学习中心”（Active Learning Centers）招收了约1000名儿童。
然后疫情来了。
该学校表示，他们为虚拟学习改造投入了数千美元。埃尔德里奇提高了教师工资，试图阻止专业人士因其他领域更高的薪资而离开该行业。通货膨胀使从清洁用品到点心时间供应的香蕉和葡萄等一切物品的成本都上涨了。该中心在2020年底五年来首次提高了价格。目前入学人数仍下降约30%。
“这就像一把疯狂的双刃剑，”她说，“因为如果父母找不到日托服务，或者负担不起日托费用，整个社区都会受到影响。”
affordability问题成为今年中期选举的核心，届时国会控制权可能取决于哪个政党更能帮助缓解从医疗保健到住房等一切事物的高昂成本。对于有幼儿的家庭和照看孩子的人来说，日托成本往往是首要考虑因素。
争夺美国众议院控制权的斗争将在宾夕法尼亚州第7选区等地区展开，这是一个有分裂投票历史且独立选民集中度最高的战场。民主党候选人阵营庞大，将挑战现任共和党众议员瑞安·麦肯齐（Ryan Mackenzie），后者也在竞选时强调可负担性问题，包括在去年全面的国内政策和税法中提出帮助抵消日托成本的提案。
要赢得选举，候选人需要说服像埃尔德里奇这样的选民。尽管她是共和党人，但她表示希望前民主党众议员苏珊·怀尔德（Susan Wild，一位日托改革倡导者，在2024年竞选中输给麦肯齐）再次参选。
“如果民主党候选人真的能接下这场斗争并追随苏珊·怀尔德的脚步，那么是的，”她说，“如果共和党人能接过这一使命，真正推动变革并为日托而战，那么很可能我会投他的票。”
根据幼儿教育倡导组织“美国日托意识协会”（Child Care Aware of America）2025年的报告，2020年至2024年间，全国日托成本平均上涨了29%，超过了通货膨胀率。2025年7月的美联社-诺尔调查显示，76%的成年人认为日托成本是一个主要问题。
两党一致认为解决这一问题需要州和联邦支出。
“这是一个失灵的市场，所以我们知道需要公共投资来修复它，”宾夕法尼亚州幼儿教育协会执行董事珍·德贝尔（Jen DeBell）说，“这对孩子和家庭都有好处，也对提供日托服务的教师和项目有利。”
近年来，两党都试图解决这一问题。包括怀尔德在内的民主党人支持立法，将许多家庭的日托成本限制在家庭收入的7%以内，并提高日托工作者的薪酬。前总统乔·拜登（Joe Biden）失败的“重建美好未来”计划曾提议将收入不超过州中位数收入250%的家庭的日托费用上限，并为3岁和4岁儿童实施普及学前教育。
怀尔德表示，输掉那场斗争“非常残酷”，但她坚持认为，民主党在下次掌权时需要提出“一项大胆的日托立法”。
“任何经历过日托困境的人，即使是多年前的，就像我一样，他们都记得那种感觉，”怀尔德说，她的孩子现在已经30多岁了，“普通人真的非常希望我们能对日托问题采取严肃行动。”
共和党在通过适度改进方面取得了更好的成功。去年特朗普总统的“大美丽法案”（One Big Beautiful Bill）永久性地提高了父母可税前储蓄的日托金额，并扩大了儿童和受抚养人日托税收抵免。
“仅仅提出一项提案并不能真正打动选民的心，”“头五年基金”（First Five Years Fund）执行董事莎拉·里特林（Sarah Rittling）说，“你必须采取行动。”
现任共和党议员麦肯齐自己也在考虑日托问题。他现在有两个不到两岁的孩子，包括一个新生儿，他的妻子目前正在休产假。
“我们将不得不像其他人一样，作为一个家庭做出这个决定，”麦肯齐告诉CNN，“你要努力做出对家庭最有利的决定，但同时也要做出理性的经济决策：我工作40小时，税后收入减去两个孩子的日托费用——这值得吗？”
这位新议员已将日托问题纳入其第一任期议程，作为支持工薪家庭的更广泛努力的一部分。他宣誓就职后不久，就提出了一揽子法案，以增加对工薪父母和企业的多项税收抵免，帮助补贴日托费用。去年的国内政策法案包含了他的部分提案，将儿童税收抵免提高到2200美元，并与通货膨胀挂钩，同时将员工可税前储蓄的日托金额从5000美元提高到7500美元。
在过去一年中，麦肯齐参观了五个“开端计划”（Head Start）项目和日托中心。在最近一次访问艾伦镇的“见证我们成长日托学习中心”（Watch Us Grow Child Care Learning Center）时，他参观了教室，并给一群5岁、6岁和7岁的孩子读了《忘记的大象埃德蒙》（Edmund the Elephant Who Forgot）和《露比的上学路》（Ruby’s School Walk）。参观结束后，该中心首席执行官杰雷斯基·马丁内斯（Jerresky Martinez）和他的团队在一盘盘传统多米尼加早餐食物——mangú（一种香蕉泥）、香肠、鸡蛋、肉馅卷饼和新鲜水果——旁介绍了学校的历史。
起初，马丁内斯想开设一家门诊诊所，但很快发现日托中心会更合适。“见证我们成长”于2016年开业，最终招收约350名学生，其中90%的费用通过低收入家庭州计划得到补贴。马丁内斯表示，自疫情以来，学校入学人数减少了150人，20名员工离职。目前该中心正在寻找新教师，有50个家庭在等待名单上。
“我们经常听到的挑战是仓库和类似的东西，”麦肯齐说，“他们每小时支付27到28美元（工资）。”
“这就是我失去这么多员工的原因，”马丁内斯回答。
争夺麦肯齐席位的候选人包括消防员工会领袖鲍勃·布鲁克斯（Bob Brooks）、能源系统工程师卡罗尔·奥班多-德斯特恩（Carol Obando-Derstine）和前联邦检察官瑞安·克罗斯韦尔（Ryan Crosswell）。
前共和党人克罗斯韦尔在司法部撤销对前纽约市市长埃里克·亚当斯的腐败指控后辞职，在筹款中领先，并强调捍卫民主的信息。布鲁克斯获得了包括州长乔希·夏皮罗（Josh Shapiro）在内的最受瞩目的支持，并强调自己的工薪阶层民主党背景。由怀尔德招募的奥班多-德斯特恩在筹款方面落后。
该选区的其他候选人还包括前北安普顿县行政长官拉蒙特·麦克卢尔（Lamont McClure）和利哈伊县控制器马克·平斯利（Mark Pinsley）。
民主党候选人在解决日托成本问题上有类似提案，包括增加税收抵免和补贴，扩大免费学前教育的机会。
“我受够了被踢到牙，每天看着我的孩子被踢到牙，”布鲁克斯告诉CNN，“归根结底，人们再也负担不起任何东西了，日托就是其中之一。”
布鲁克斯说，他每周帮儿子和儿媳照看一次孙女（1岁）和孙女（3岁），以节省日托费用。
奥班多-德斯特恩指出了自己作为母亲的亲身经历。她说，有一段时间，她和丈夫支付的日托费用比他们的抵押贷款还高。
“我在谈论可负担性时，把日托作为我的核心政策重点，因为我有切身体会，”她说，“我是一个抚养孩子同时照顾年迈父母的人，我记得孩子还小的时候是什么样子。”
克罗斯韦尔提出了一个经济论点，认为增加日托服务可及性将帮助父母工作并改善儿童成长结果。
“我认为日托的独特之处在于，它不仅是一项额外支出，还限制了他们的职业流动性，”他说。
克罗斯韦尔在彼得·克拉伊萨（Peter Krajsa）家中举办了一场家庭聚会，克拉伊萨是国家能源改进基金（National Energy Improvement Fund）首席执行官，该基金为能源效率项目提供贷款。69岁的克拉伊萨称自己是独立人士，并表示克罗斯韦尔表现得像个温和派，类似于前议员查理·登特（Charlie Dent）和怀尔德。他担心民主党会提名一位对该选区选民过于自由的候选人，而这些选民寻求的是中间派。
“他们在寻找一个理性、聪明且明白自己的工作是为了共同利益而非党派利益的人，”克拉伊萨说，“这里的中间派比两边的极端分子多得多。”
尽管他的孩子已经成年，但他看到了日托成本的影响——影响他公司员工的父母，影响他提供热泵贷款的家庭中面临日托成本的人，以及影响他自己家庭的下一代。
他37岁的侄子、律师约翰·克拉伊萨（John Krajsa）说，当他和妻子莎拉开始为第一个孩子寻找日托选项时，他们对价格感到震惊。
“这很困难，因为你想把孩子送到一个他们能茁壮成长、感到安全且你确信能得到良好照顾的地方，但同时你也在看成本，”他说。
“主动学习中心”仍在应对疫情带来的成本变化。埃尔德里奇表示，入门级教师的平均工资已从每小时10美元提高到15美元，而公司的责任保险费用在过去五年中从每年5.7万美元飙升至44.5万美元。
埃尔德里奇开始通过在线和邮寄广告来增加入学人数。另一名员工负责批量食品采购的交易。
“有一段时间很艰难，”埃默斯分店主任西阿拉·曼宁（Ciara Manning）说，“入学人数下降，士气低落。我是说，情况很可怕。”
曼宁10年前加入该公司，当时她离开一份收入更高的工作，在当地学区教4-8年级的数学和科学。她说，该学区过于关注考试。
“我们真正专注于通过乐趣、领导力、核心价值观和所有这些孩子——尤其是幼儿——需要的基础知识来学习和探索，以帮助他们取得成功，”曼宁说。
对许多父母来说，日托是他们必须管理的几项困难但必要的开支之一。“这只是我们知道必须做的事。我丈夫必须工作，我也必须工作。我们不能靠一份收入生活，”27岁的教师丹妮尔·桑切斯（Danielle Sanchez）说，她把女儿送到“主动学习中心”的一个校区，“我们讨论过‘我能不能不上班’，但这只是一个很短的讨论，因为我们看了财务状况，发现不可能。”
37岁的营销专业人士安德里亚·卡斯蒂洛（Andrea Castilow）和她的丈夫在疫情开始前就在利哈伊谷买了房子。不久之后，她发现自己怀了第一个孩子。现在她送5岁和3岁的孩子去该校。
“每个月都要考虑‘好，我们有这么大的日托账单’。这五年来一直如此，”她说，“这确实会影响财务决策。”
他们的日托费用在去年之前一直高于抵押贷款，直到他们搬到一个新的家以容纳更大的家庭。即便如此，卡斯蒂洛说，他们考虑过推迟搬家，直到大孩子开始上公立学校。
卡斯蒂洛是一位倾向自由派的独立人士，她说，正是对校园枪击事件和枪支暴力的担忧促使她开始更多地参与政治。随着今年选举的临近，她的关键问题是日托、幼儿教育和对家庭的支持（如育儿假）。
“拥有日托服务真的不是一种奢侈，”她说，“我觉得它在我们的社会中已经成为越来越重要的基础设施。”
‘I’m tired of getting kicked in the teeth’: How child care costs could swing a key US House district
2026-02-21T13:00:33.919Z / CNN
Emmaus, Pennsylvania—
Dana Eldridge and Paul Miller opened their first day care center in 2005 after nearly a decade of running a popular martial arts school and summer camp. Over the next 15 years, they opened four more locations and expanded from school-aged children to including infants and toddlers. At its peak, Active Learning Centers enrolled about 1,000 kids.
Then came the pandemic.
The school says it spent thousands on renovations for virtual learning. Eldridge raised teacher pay to try to stem the flow of professionals leaving the industry for higher-paying jobs in other fields. Inflation increased the cost of everything from cleaning supplies to the bananas and grapes served at snack time. The center raised its prices in late 2020 for the first time in five years. Enrollment is still down about 30%.
Ad Feedback
“It’s this crazy, double-edged sword,” she said. “Because if parents can’t find child care, or they can’t afford child care, the entire community suffers.”
Affordability concerns are at the center of this year’s midterm elections, when control of Congress will likely come down to which party voters trust more to help alleviate the high cost of everything from health care to housing. For families with young children and the people who watch them, child care costs are often at the top of the list.
The battle for control of the US House will run through places like Pennsylvania’s 7th District, a battleground with a history of ticket-splitting and the highest concentration of independent voters in the state. A crowded Democratic field has formed to take on first-term Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, who is also campaigning on affordability issues, including proposals to help offset child care costs in last year’s sweeping domestic policy and tax law.
To win, the candidates need to persuade voters like Eldridge. Though she’s a Republican, she said she wished former Democratic Rep. Susan Wild – a child care reform advocate who lost to Mackenzie in 2024 – was running again.
“If the Democratic candidate is going to be really taking up this fight and following in the shoes of Susan Wild, then, yes,” she said. “If the Republican is the one who’s going to pick up the mantle and really push for change and really fight for child care, then most likely that’s who I’m going to vote for.”
National child care costs rose an average of 29% between 2020 and 2024, outpacing inflation, according to a 2025 report from Child Care Aware of America, an early education advocacy group. A July 2025 AP-NORC poll found that 76% of adults view the cost of child care as a major problem.
There’s bipartisan agreement that solving the issue requires state and federal spending.
“It’s a broken market, so we know we need public investment in the system to fix it,” said Jen DeBell, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children. “Both for kids and families, but also the teachers and the programs that are offering the care.”
Both parties have sought to address the issue in recent years. Democrats, including Wild, back legislation that would cap child care costs for many families at 7% of their household income and boost payments for child care workers. Former President Joe Biden’s failed Build Back Better plan would have capped child care payments for families making up to 250% of the state median income and implemented universal pre-kindergarten for 3- and 4-year-olds.
Losing that fight was “brutal,” Wild said. But she insisted that Democrats need to introduce “a bold piece of childcare legislation” when they next have the power to do so.
“Anybody who’s ever had child care woes, even if it was years ago, as it was for me, they remember what it was like,” said Wild, whose kids are now in their 30s. “Your average person really, really, really wants us to do something serious about child care.”
Republicans have had better success passing modest improvements. Last year’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” President Donald Trump’s domestic policy and tax law, permanently increased the amounts parents can save pre-tax for child care and expanded the child and dependent care tax credit.
“Just saying you have a proposal isn’t going to really sway the minds of constituents,” said Sarah Rittling, the executive director of the First Five Years Fund. “You have to do something.”
Mackenzie, the Republican incumbent, is in the midst of his own child care considerations. He now has two young children under two, including a newborn, and his wife is currently on maternity leave.
“We are going to have to make that decision as a family, just like everybody else,” Mackenzie told CNN. “You’re trying to make a decision that’s best for your family, but also a rational economic decision on, for the 40 hours that I’m going to be working, my take-home pay minus the child care for two kids – is that worth it?”
The freshman lawmaker has made child care part of his first-term agenda, as part of a broader push to support working families. Soon after he was sworn in, he introduced a package of bills to increase several tax credits for working parents and businesses to help subsidize the cost of child care. Last year’s domestic policy law included versions of his proposals. It raised the child tax credit to $2,200 and indexed it to inflation and increased the amount employees can save pre-tax for childcare to $7,500, up from $5,000.
Over the last year, Mackenzie has visited five Head Start programs and day care centers. During a recent visit to the Watch Us Grow Child Care Learning Center in Allentown, he toured the classrooms and read “Edmund the Elephant Who Forgot” and “Ruby’s School Walk” to a class of 5-, 6- and 7-year-olds. After the tour, the center’s chief executive, Jerresky Martinez, and his team laid out the history of the school over plates of traditional Dominican breakfast foods – mangú, sausage, eggs and empanadas – and fresh fruit.
Initially, Martinez wanted to open an outpatient clinic, but it soon became clear that a day care center would be a better fit. Watch Us Grow opened in 2016 and eventually grew to an enrollment of about 350 students, 90% of whom have their fees subsidized through a state program for low-income families. Since the pandemic, Martinez said, the school’s enrollment dropped by 150 students and 20 employees left the company. There’s now a 50-family waitlist as the center searches for new teachers.
“We actually often hear the challenge is warehouses and stuff like that,” Mackenzie said. “They’re paying $27, $28 an hour.”
“That’s why I lost so many staff,” Martinez replied.
The field of candidates running to unseat Mackenzie includes firefighter union leader Bob Brooks, energy systems engineer Carol Obando-Derstine, and former federal prosecutor Ryan Crosswell.
Crosswell, a former Republican who resigned from the Justice Department after the agency dropped corruption charges against former New York City Mayor Eric Adams, has led in fundraising and is leaning into a message of defending democracy. Brooks has amassed the most high-profile endorsements, including from Gov. Josh Shapiro, and pointed to his background as a working-class Democrat. Obando-Derstine, who was recruited by Wild, has trailed in fundraising.
Other candidates in the race include former Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure and Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley.
The Democratic candidates share similar proposals for tackling child care costs, including increasing tax credits and subsidies and expanding access to free pre-K.
“I’m tired of getting kicked in the teeth, watching my kids get kicked in the teeth every day,” Brooks told CNN. “At the end of the day, people can’t afford anything anymore, child care being one of them.”
Brooks said he helps babysit his granddaughters – a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old – once a week to help his son and daughter-in-law save on day care costs.
Obando-Derstine pointed to her personal experience as a mother. At one point, she said, she and her husband paid more for child care than their mortgage.
“I have made child care a central part of my platform when I talk about affordability, because I get it,” she said. “I’m someone that’s raising kids and also caring for aging parents, and I remember what it was like when my kids were little.”
Crosswell made an economic argument, arguing that increased access would help parents work and improve outcomes for children.
“I think child care is unique in the sense that not only is it an extra expense, but it’s limiting their professional mobility,” he said.
Crosswell held a house party at the home of Peter Krajsa, the chief executive of the National Energy Improvement Fund, which offers loans for energy efficiency projects. Krajsa, 69, described himself as an independent and said Crosswell came across as a moderate, similar to former Reps. Charlie Dent and Wild. He said he worries Democrats will nominate someone too liberal for voters in the district who are seeking centrists.
“They’re looking for somebody who is rational and intelligent and understands that their job is for the common good and not as partisan,” Krajsa said. “There’s a bigger swath of middle people here than there are extremists on both sides.”
Though his kids are adults, he said he sees the impact of child care costs – on the parents who work for his firm, on the families he gives loans to for heat pumps who are grappling with day care costs, and within the next generation of his own family.
His nephew, John Krajsa, a 37-year-old lawyer, said he and his wife Sarah were shocked by the price of child care when they started exploring options for their first child.
“It’s difficult because you want to put your child in a place where they’re going to excel, where you think that they feel safe, and where you are just confident that they’re going to be given great care,” he said. “But at the same time, you’re also looking at costs.”
Active Learning Centers is still dealing with the cost shifts from the pandemic. Eldridge said the average pay for an entry-level teacher has increased from $10 to $15 an hour, and the company’s liability insurance has skyrocketed from $57,000 to $445,000 a year over the last five years.
Eldridge started advertising online and through mail to boost enrollment. Another staffer shops for deals on the bulk food purchases for the company.
“It was tough for a while,” said Ciara Manning, the director of the Emmaus branch. “Enrollment was down, morale was down. I mean, things were scary.”
Manning started with the company 10 years ago, when she left a better paying job teaching math and science to 4 th-8 th graders at a local public school district. The school district, she said, focused too much on testing.
“We really focus on learning and exploring through fun and leadership and core values and all those fundamentals that children need – especially early children need – to help them be successful,” Manning said.
For many parents, daycare is one of several difficult, but necessary, costs they must manage. “It’s just what we knew we had to do. My husband has to work. I have to work. We can’t survive off of one income,” said Danielle Sanchez, a 27-year-old teacher who sends her daughter to an Active Learning Centers location. “There was a conversation of ‘Can I stay home from work?’ But it was a very short conversation, as we looked at finances and said there’s no way.”
Andrea Castilow, a 37-year-old marketing professional, and her husband bought a home in the Lehigh Valley right before the pandemic started. Soon after, she found out they were expecting their first child. She now sends her 5- and 3-year-olds to the school.
“Every month it’s, ‘OK, we have this big childcare bill.’ It’s just been there for five years,” she said. “It does play into financial decisions, for sure.”
Their child care costs were higher than their mortgage until last year, when they moved into a new home to accommodate their larger family. Even then, Castilow said, they considered delaying moving until their oldest started attending public school.
Castilow, an independent who leans left, said it was her concern over school shootings and gun violence that pushed her to start getting more engaged politically. As this year’s election approaches, her key issues are child care, early childhood education and support for families, such as parental leave.
“Having child care is not really a luxury,” she said. “I feel like it’s become more and more of an essential infrastructure in our society.”
