Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, is expected to announce a plan Tuesday that would fund universal childcare by tapping into revenue from her wealth tax proposal, reports said.
Warren’s plan would set up a federal program to guarantee child care from birth until children’s entry into school. Families with income less than 200 per cent of the poverty line would get free access.
The broad strokes of the plan-- which would cover 12 million children-- would mean no family would have to spend more than seven per cent of its total household income, according to The Huffington Post, which first reported on the announcement. The report said the number is based off a Department of Health and Human Services figure on what qualifies as affordable childcare.
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The plan is still being worked on, but sources told the news outlet that they expect it to cost about $700 billion in new funding over 10 years or four times what the federal government pays on these programs.
Her plan would guarantee compensation for child care program workers at rates comparable to public school teachers in their areas.