Rising prices for many key services helped deliver the White House for President Donald Trump in 2024, and the Trump administration recently touted falling rents and gas prices as part of its affordability agenda. But child care costs, on the other hand, continue to rise.
Child care has become one of the fastest-rising household expenses in the United States. Since 2010, the cost of daycare and preschool has increased by 61%, outpacing the rise in food prices, college tuition, and medical care. As child care costs climb, many families are forced to make difficult trade-offs, often pushing parents, especially women, out of the workforce or into less stable care arrangements.
These pressures extend beyond individual households. When parents leave the labor force or reduce hours because child care is unaffordable or unavailable, employers lose workers, communities lose economic activity, and long-term earnings trajectories are permanently altered.
The cost of child care is expensive for several reasons, including labor intensity and safety requirements. But one factor stands out as both significant and fixable: Stringent regulation.
A recently published report by the Archbridge Institute compiled child care facility regulations for every state and computed a unique overall ranking of state regulations. The results show striking differences.
Idaho has the least restrictive regulations in the country, followed by South Carolina, Arizona, Alabama, and Florida, while Vermont has the most restrictive child care regulations. Data from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute shows annual infant care costs in Idaho are $9,630, but that figure nearly doubles to $18,836 in Vermont.
States with lighter regulatory burdens tend to share common features, such as lower minimum education requirements, higher staff-to-child ratios, and higher or absent maximum group size requirements. These rules make it easier for providers to enter the market, expand capacity, and respond to local demand.
Correlation is not causation, but the pattern is consistent: Child care costs are generally higher in more regulated states. Research also suggests that the harms of excessive child care regulations are felt most in low-income areas, where higher costs and lower availability force out providers that might serve families with limited options.
A common concern is that deregulation could compromise child safety or quality. There is no evidence that rules on group size or child care staffing ratios protect children. There is some evidence that education matters, but it is unclear whether current stringent requirements are set at an optimal level to balance safety with accessibility and affordability.
BIG LABOR’S CHILD CARE RACKET
If the goal is to help families and children flourish, policymakers should focus on removing unnecessary barriers rather than adding new ones. Overregulation reduces the supply of child care, drives up costs, and limits providers’ ability to pay and retain skilled workers. While a grandmother or grandfather might be an excellent option for some families, this is not scalable for a nationwide crisis.
Making child care more affordable requires addressing the root cause of rising prices. Sensible deregulation, especially at the state level, is a good place to start.
Ricky Feir is a research specialist at the Challey Institute for Global Innovation and Growth at North Dakota State University. Edward Timmons is the vice president of policy at the Archbridge Institute. Feir is also a co-author of the State Childcare Regulation Index.