Nebraska maintained its #8 national ranking for child well-being in the 2023 Kids Count data book from the Annie E Casey Foundation, which offers trends and a report card on how youths are faring state to state.
The rankings are based on 16 indicators in 4 broad areas: economy; education; health; and family and community. Nebraska ranks #1 this year in economic well-being.
Juliet Summers, executive director of Voices for Children in Nebraska, says the state’s high overall ranking and top spot in economic well-being is due mostly to its low unemployment rate – one of the lowest in the nation since the pandemic.
Summers says the flip side is that a growing portion of money earned by working families is going toward child care expenses with the cost pushing some parents to quit their jobs.
Summers says “affordable and accessible child care is a necessary precursor to any kind of functional economy,” echoing the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce, which has identified qualified and affordable child care as a top challenge in filling what it says are up to 80,000 open jobs across the state.
Shortcomings in the child care industry is what advocates chose to focus on in this year’s Kids Count analysis, which ranked Nebraska 12th in the nation for education; 15th for health; and 20th for family and community.
The median annual cost for one toddler at a Nebraska child care center was reported to be $10,422 or about 10% of what a typical married couple earns, 26th nationally, and nearly a third of a single mother’s income, ranking 23rd.
The 46-page Kids Count data book says child care costs have risen 220% since the publication of the first edition in 1990, and that child care workers are paid worse than 98% of jobs, with median national wage of $13.71 an hour last year, compared to $14.26 for retail workers and $18.16 for those in customer service.