JD Vance’s recent suggestions for lowering day care costs left many people on social media befuddled.
On Wednesday, the Republican vice presidential nominee discussed the 2024 election in an interview at a church in Mesa, Arizona, with right-wing podcast host Charlie Kirk.
During the conversation, Kirk read aloud a question from someone in the audience who asked: “What can we do about lowering the cost of day care?”
Vance noted it was an “important question” before suggesting that working parents could alleviate the burden of rising child care costs by relying on their family members.
“One of the things that we can do, is make it easier for families to choose whatever model they want,” the Ohio senator said. “One of the ways that you might be able to relieve a little bit of the pressure on people is... maybe grandma or grandpa wants to help out a little bit more. Or maybe there’s an aunt or uncle that wants to help out a little bit more.”
“If that happens, you relieve some of the pressure on all the resources that we’re spending on day care,” he said.
Vance then seemed to acknowledge that many families, for a variety of reasons, might not have the advantage of free child care from relatives.
So he suggested that another approach could be to make the process of becoming a day care worker more accessible.
“What we have to do is actually empower people to get trained in the skills that they need for the 21st century,” he said. “We got a lot of people who love kids, who would love to take care of kids.”
The Republican senator claimed such people are deterred from the profession because they “don’t have access to the education that they need” or because they’re forced to obtain a “ridiculous certification” that has “nothing to do with taking care of kids.”
“Don’t force every early child care specialist to go and get a six-year college degree,” he added.
Many parents across the country publicly expressed their disappointment with how little time was spent on the topic of soaring child care costs during the first 2024 presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump on June 27.
Child care costs are rising at a near-double pace than that of overall inflation, according to a report by tax firm KPMG published in May.
Trump dodged the question at the debate entirely, and Biden referenced his support for increasing tax credits for families with child care needs.
Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee after Biden dropped his reelection bid, has addressed ways to approach high child care costs during her campaign.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, tackled the issue as president with child tax credits — though he has not made his current proposals on the issue clear.
People on X, formerly Twitter, slammed Vance’s recent interview, pointing out that grandparents are not the solution to making child care more affordable.
“He really is clueless and out of touch. People asking family members to care for their kids is not a policy solution,” one X user wrote.
“They want Grandma to work until she is 72. How is she going to babysit?” wrote another.
“JDV answer: free labour. get someone else to do it for you for free,” another X user added.
Other people pointed out that although education and certification requirements for day care workers vary state to state, child care workers aren’t typically required to have six years of education beyond high school — or a college degree at all.
Check out more responses to Vance’s remarks about child care costs below:
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