The First Five Things To Know About: A New Poll Showing Nevada Voter Support For Child Care Funding

The vast majority (90%) of Nevada voters believe it is important for working parents of young children to be able to find and afford quality child care programs. Not only do 90% believe this is important, but fully 56% say it is extremely important, and the overall sentiment clearly cuts across party lines, with 86% of Republicans, 91% of Independents, and 92% of Democrats saying finding quality child care programs for children or working parents is important.

Nevada voters believe federal funding for child care and early learning programs should be increased. Even after acknowledging concerns about the federal deficit, 78% of Nevada voters say they still believe that “increasing funding for child care and early childhood education programs is an important priority and a good use of tax dollars.” Again, this sentiment cuts across party lines, with 70% of Republican voters, 75% of Independent voters and 88% of Democratic voters agreeing on the issue.

Nevada voters believe that resources directed to child care and early learning programs benefit not just the family, but the overall community. Nearly six out of ten Nevada voters (58%) say that resources directed to child care and early learning programs benefit both the individual family/children and the overall community, while 20% say the resources only benefit the community and 17% say they only benefit the individual family.

There is broad support for each of five child care policy proposals tested. Nevada voters provide clear bipartisan support to each of five child care reform policies proposed. Each proposal wins easily across gender and generational lines, as well as across both ideological and partisan lines. In fact, even ’24 Trump voters provide at least 66% support for each of the five policies tested. These include:

• Providing tax incentives to businesses which provide or help their employees find and afford quality early childhood education programs – 82% support (including 79% of Republicans and 86% of Democrats)
• Providing greater funding to Head Start and Early Head Start to support families with the greatest needs. – 82% support (including 73% of Republicans and 92% of Democrats)
• Increasing the tax credit specifically designed to help working parents offset the cost of child care (also known as the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, or CDCTC) – 79% support (Including 77% of Republicans and 87% of Democrats)
• Increasing the federal funding to states to expand current programs that directly help low-income children (also known as the Child Care & Development Block Grant, or CCDBG) – 77% support (including 64% of Republicans and 90% of Democrats)
• Increasing the Child Tax Credit, a tax benefit for families with children which can be used on any household expense – 73% support (including 65% of Republicans and 82% of Democrats)

One reason for such strong and broad support – voters recognize the impact that child care can have on a family’s household economy. Previous polling has shown that business owners and voters feel strongly that child care is important for the local and national economy. In this poll, we see it also hits even closer to home. Nearly one-quarter (23%) of Nevada voters polled said they or a family member had to miss work because of child care issues, while 17% of all Nevada workers say they have missed or cut back on work because of child care issues. Finally, fully 63% of non full time working parents say they would go back to work full-time if their child had access to quality child care at a reasonable cost.