By Bob Fisher (Radio Iowa)

A new report shows a state pilot program raised the number of children who could enroll in childcare services in select communities, which improved wages and benefits for local childcare workers.

The “Iowa Childcare Solutions Fund: A Model for Closing the Childcare Gap” report analyzed the effect the Childcare Solutions Fund had in pilot communities, matching private investments from businesses and individuals with state funding.

Iowa Women’s Foundation president and CEO Deann Cook says she’s proud to see a public-private partnership successfully address this issue.

“These are funds that were raised with private investment in local areas, local communities, and then matched with state dollars,” Cook says. “It was really the merger of those public and private dollars that created an investment fund into the childcare workforce, and it’s really made a difference.”

In Cerro Gordo County, a two-dollars-an-hour wage supplement program was started to address a workforce issue, but Cook says each area taking part in the program has its own unique way to address the childcare shortage.

“They’re doing all slightly different things. What Iowa Women’s Foundation has found is there’s a local ‘secret sauce,’ we can’t impose any solution across the state,” she says. “It has to really be driven from the ground up. All of them are being invested in childcare workforce wages, some in retention bonuses, some in a higher increased hourly wage. They have the freedom to do that.”

Now that the pilot program has shown positive results, Cook says state leaders will need to look into the next steps on how to address the childcare crisis statewide.

“That’s exactly why we did the report, to determine how successful these communities in our pilot program were and determine if it’s worth pursuing and replicating across the state,” Cook says. “What the report is telling us is just in this pilot program, it increased 22 childcare slots per 1,000 children in each pilot community. That statistic alone would tell you, it’s definitely worth considering how public and private dollars can merge together to make a difference in childcare.”

The report shows that if the pilot program was expanded statewide, it would create 8,000 new jobs, enable 5,000 more parents and guardians to join the workforce, add 11,000 new childcare slots, and increase Iowa’s gross domestic product by $13-billion.