Curley: Washington House candidate’s ‘free’ child care plan will end up costing you more

Here is a candidate for Washington State House, 46th district. This is Ron Davis, and he is concerned about the cost of child care. He has a couple of recommendations.

“Washington is one of the most expensive places for child care in the entire country,” Davis said. “The cost is crushing careers, breaking families, and making it so people who want kids cannot have them. My wife and I had to go into debt just to afford tuition. We don’t have to live like this. In Sweden, no one pays more than $130 a month. In France, it’s free for 3-year-olds and up, and they cover three-quarters of the cost for toddlers. New Mexico is expanding to universal free child care.”

Is it free? It’s free like the school lunches.

We got Sweden, we got France, we got New Mexico.

“They’ve already lifted over 100,000 people out of poverty,” Davis said. “Washington state is twice as rich as these places. It does not have to be this way. This is why I support affordable child care for everyone. It should be free for most families, and capped at 7% for higher earners. And we need to give providers a big, fat raise.”

It’s gonna be free, and then give child care providers a big, fat raise?

Sweden, France, and New Mexico. Those are the standards by which we should be running ours.

Washington pays 24% in taxes — Sweden and France pay nearly double

In Sweden, the folks pay double the tax that the people in Washington pay every year. Forty-seven percent of your income goes to the government, which goes to child care in Sweden.

Twenty-four percent goes for your taxes in the state of Washington.

France, same story. Forty-eight percent of your income goes to pay the government, to pay the government for a whole bunch of services that apparently are free.

When it comes to New Mexico, it is one of the most affordable states in the country. It’s number 17, 18, 19, no matter which one you look at, it’s way more affordable, because Washington is the 48th least affordable state to live in.

Not so sure why it’s so rich. And when it comes to expenses, here’s what’s going to happen. The government has gotten involved because they’re going to try to solve the problem.

So here’s how they’re going to do it: Democrats, along with the union, have created a new board.

Nothing stinks up anything in the marketplace worse than the government appointing a new board, because these people are going to be appointed, unelected, unaccountable, union-approved board members. They’re going to take up everything. They’re going to fill the marketplace faster than babies’ diapers fill up at a lobster bake.

Here’s what happens: your favorite shrinking union, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Washington State Council, needs new members.

What they’ve done is they’ve helped to create this board. This board is going to step in, and they’re going to create the standards and the pay that are going to go into place. Now, do you think that is going to reduce the cost of anything?

You’re going to get this politically motivated board that’s going to be powered by a bunch of people who are appointed into the marketplace of child care, so regulations will fill up faster than diapers at a baby taco bar eating contest.

Expect a 20% increase once the new board takes over

The costs are going to skyrocket. Expenses are going to go up. And then you’re going to expect to see fewer and fewer choices.

I’m going to make a bold prediction here: once the board gets in place, the union starts picking up the regulations, then deciding how many people have to be working there and what the pay is going to be — you should probably see about a 20% increase. That’s what’s going to happen.

If you want to save money, you can reduce the staffing ratio. Reduce the staffing ratio because Washington has the highest. You can go back to Sweden, France, and New Mexico, because apparently they do everything right, because they’re European, and also from New Mexico. They have a different ratio than we have, and you save money.

For instance, if you were to change the ratio — rather than 1 to 4, you do 1 to 6 — when it comes to adults, to babies, you can save anywhere between 9% and 20%.

You could also loosen the education requirement for employees, like they do in Sweden, New Mexico, and France. Out here in the United States, not in Washington, certainly.

“Oh, you’ve got to make sure this person gets this degree and that degree and this degree and that degree …”

Why don’t you allow the choices to be made by the parents? Because the parents know better than the board, better than any union member, better than anybody else, what’s best for their kids.

Whenever it comes to housing, education, health care, wages, and energy — you name it — when the government vows to reduce the cost, they manage to screw things up, and that new board, well, you’re going to wish you had diapers on, because when you see what the cost of daycare is, you will poop yourself.

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