Like many Maryland parents, I am no stranger to juggling the demands of a career and the needs of a family. When my husband and I found out we were going to have our first child, we called our parents right away, followed almost immediately by calls to child care centers. We put our names on the waitlists and crossed our fingers. Months later when the baby arrived, there were still no spots available, so we had to make other arrangements.

Unfortunately, in the last decade, it has only grown more challenging to find child care in Maryland, a reality that affects parents, children and our economy. Voting to approve Gov. Wes Moore’s budget reduction package at the July 17 Board of Public Works meeting was extremely difficult — but I did so knowing that these budget cuts were necessary to protect the state’s Child Care Scholarship program. This program helps to provide child care for Maryland parents who need it — to ensure a ready workforce, grow our economy and give the next generation of Marylanders a chance to maximize their potential.

As comptroller of Maryland, the elected official responsible for reviewing our state revenues, I see the consequences when parents, particularly mothers, drop out of the workforce because of child care challenges: We lose revenue necessary to help keep up with the needs stretching our state budget. Although women are taking a disproportionate hit to their earning potential, the consequences affect our entire economy. In January, I released our state’s first State of the Economy report to help explain some challenges blocking Maryland’s path to more robust revenue growth. In developing the report, we found that child care affordability and availability pose serious challenges for many of the more than 1.5 million families and 239,000 businesses in Maryland. Between 2019 and 2023, the average cost of child care increased up to 30%, while the number of providers declined. Maryland lost 15% of child care providers and nearly 7% of child care slots between January 2020 and January 2024, making a high-demand resource scarcer. These numbers have not rebounded, and Maryland’s recovery has been the worst in the nation.

This challenge is not unique to Maryland, but our situation is particularly dire. We have the sixth-highest average child care costs of all states — and families pay nearly $28,000 annually, or 26% of the state’s median family income. To put this in context: tuition for in-state students at the University of Maryland College Park next year is roughly $10,000. Families have nine months to save for child care and 18 years to save for college.

Maryland’s revenues — and our businesses — depend on an engaged and ready workforce. During the pandemic, we saw the state labor participation rate drop 4 percentage points, representing a loss of 181,000 workers. Although unemployment is around 3%, that low figure is partially because participation in the workforce has not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. In 2023 in Maryland, there was only one job seeker for every three existing job vacancies.

Not all potential job seekers are parents, but a significant number of people opting out of the workforce are women of prime working age who cited caregiving as their reason for leaving the workforce. A national Census Bureau survey in 2022 found that 365,000 adults reported losing their jobs because they needed to care for children under the age of five while working.

As my team and I travel the state to learn about businesses, we hear that employers are struggling to hire, particularly in critical sectors, including health care, retail, educational services, education and child care. A shortage of qualified workers in the child care field itself will further contribute to the shortage of available spaces and limit choices for working parents.

During the pandemic, the American Rescue Plan Act helped more than 70,000 child care providers nationwide cover basic operational costs and retain staff. Even as some child care programs remain affordable through strong fundraising, there is still a question of raising rates over time to cover rising costs. Continued state support will make a difference in keeping programs open, families enrolled, and parents in the workforce.

My agency will continue to do its part, analyzing and publishing data on the workforce, the economy and issues like child care that are directly correlated with economic participation. This fall, we will release another research brief to help lawmakers and the public understand the opportunities and challenges regarding child care in Maryland.

By supporting the Child Care Scholarship program, the governor and General Assembly have made the right call: Investing in child care strengthens our workforce and, in turn, spurs economic growth. I am pleased to stand with them as we make a collective investment in families that will allow working parents to thrive at home and at work and will help children build a better Maryland in the coming decades.

Brooke Lierman (brooke@marylandtaxes.gov) is the 34th comptroller of Maryland.