This story first appeared in How We Care, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA featuring original reporting and perspectives on how we care for one another at all stages of life. Sign up for free here.
The General Assembly reconvenes this week, kicking off another session of drafting, debating, and voting on legislation that could affect people across the commonwealth.
Many Pennsylvanians are parents, and legislative memos — which preview bills before lawmakers formally introduce them — show some of elected officials’ latest plans to address the financial burdens of raising kids.
How We Care has selected three memos addressing paid family leave, pre-K access, and child care costs to highlight some of the issues parents face. Not every memo will necessarily become a bill, nor do most bills become law, but the legislation shows what caregiving concerns lawmakers are prioritizing and their approaches to these problems.
Issue: Paid family and medical leave
Prime Sponsor: State Rep. Kristin Marcell (R., Bucks)
Proposal: Creating a state tax credit that expands access to paid family and medical leave by matching the existing credit employers can claim on their federal returns.
A federal incentive lets employers claim a tax credit that’s equal to a percentage of the wages they pay employees who take time off for family or medical leave. In other words, it encourages businesses to pay workers who take off for personal or familial medical issues, which can help them maintain employment and income during a critical time in their personal lives.
Under Marcell’s proposed match, employers who offer paid family and medical leave would receive additional support from the state.
Marcell’s bill would limit the amount that all Pennsylvania employers could claim to $100 million per year, and distribute it on a first-come, first-served basis.
“The cost will be predictable, and this bill does not raise any taxes or represent a mandate on any employer,” she wrote in the memo for the legislation.
Both Democratic and Republican members backed a version of the bill introduced during the last legislative session. Despite that bipartisan support, the Democrat who controlled the state House Finance Committee didn’t bring the bill up for a vote.
Under that version, the proposed tax credit was nonrefundable: That means it could reduce someone’s tax bill to $0, but would not give them money back.
Because that proposed tax break was nonrefundable, the benefit it offered to employers was finite, argued Donna Cooper, executive director of the Philadelphia-based nonprofit Children First.
Cooper cited a recent report from the Independent Fiscal Office that found nearly two-thirds of corporate net income returns in Pennsylvania had tax liabilities of less than $10,000.
Because the tax liabilities for many small and medium-sized companies are already low, Cooper argued that a nonrefundable tax credit would not likely motivate more employers to offer paid leave. So many caregivers would remain in the same position they’re in now.
Instead, Cooper wants to see universal paid leave, such as what was proposed last session.
Issue: Child care costs
Prime Sponsor: State Rep. Aaron Bernstine (R., Lawrence)
Proposal: A tax credit to help Pennsylvania parents afford child care by allowing them to deduct up to $10,000 on their state returns.
Nationwide, child care costs can amount to thousands of dollars per year, according to figures from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. In 2022, the annual cost of center-based care for a toddler in Pennsylvania was $11,346.
“Child care costs continue to be a financial burden for working families in America and in our very own state,” Bernstine said in his Dec. 19 memorandum.
Bernstine said the bill aims to provide relief to families. But such a tax break would address only one side of the issue, said Robert S. Carl, president of the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce.
“Unfortunately child care slots are shrinking and child care facilities continue to close due to the inability to recruit and retain child care teachers,” wrote Carl in an email.
So even families that can afford to pay thousands of dollars every year struggle to find quality child care.
As Spotlight PA reported in May, the number of center-based child care providers has dropped by nearly 9% since before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. A major driver of the closures is low pay, which causes caregivers to leave the field for less demanding jobs.
That’s why Schuylikill’s chamber is part of a coalition of more than 50 Pennsylvania business groups lobbying to subsidize child care worker salaries. In a letter sent to state lawmakers in June, the coalition argued the dearth of quality child care harms “virtually all economic sectors” of Pennsylvania.
Issue: Pre-K access
Prime Sponsor: State Rep. Tarik Khan (D., Philadelphia)
Proposal: A requirement that schools provide pre-K education to all eligible children.
Just 46% of eligible 3- and 4-year-olds in Pennsylvania participate in publicly funded pre-K, according to a 2024 report co-authored by multiple child advocacy groups. The report argues that low pay results in fewer early childhood educators — which creates a shortage of pre-K classrooms.
Khan’s memorandum is light on details, and his office did not respond to requests for clarification by publication time. It does not explain if his proposed pre-K mandate comes with additional funding.
The memo notes that pre-K is a “powerful intervention” to help reduce income and achievement gaps. Research backs this up. Kids who attend pre-K are more likely to attend college and to vote, and are less likely to be arrested for a violent crime.
Pre-K also can benefit parents, according to one study from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Parents of pre-K students in New Haven, Connecticut, earned $5,461 per year more than the parents of kids who weren’t enrolled, a disparity that the researchers attributed to the former being less likely to have career gaps. In other words, the pre-K program replaced the need for child care.
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