Union Leader – September 5, 2026
Call it a crisis, and conservative discretion, perspective and common sense appear to fly out the window. In addition to the “housing crisis,” the “climate crisis,” the “opioid crisis” and every other “crisis” that’s been created, now unsuspecting taxpayers are being bombarded with the “child care crisis” in a coordinated push by politicians, media and special interest groups.
The drumbeat is that there are not enough child care centers, not enough child care workers and not enough money to pay for it all, and that we need to “invest” taxpayers’ money to solve it. Through a public records request to HHS, I learned that New Hampshire’s taxpayers currently pay the child care expenses of 5,800 kids, through more than 400 providers, to the tune of just more than $40 million annually. That averages $6,800 per child. With taxpayers already paying for kindergarten, grades 1-12, a combination of before-, during- and after-school meal programs, and parts of higher education, should taxpayers also be made financially responsible for child care?
Yet this past budget season, an additional $15 million of your taxpayer dollars was requested for the “Child Care Scholarship Program,” a crafty and misleading name for taxpayers covering the cost of day care and child care for others. This was another attempt at the expansion of cradle-to-grave entitlements both parties appear to endorse. For the record, the alleged original purpose of this program was to help single parents work.
Additionally, the same budget bill included language that permitted families earning up to 85 percent of the state median income, which was about $113,000 for a family of four, to receive subsidized child care. If a family’s income is at that level, do we believe taxpayers should shoulder the cost of their child care? This change would allow 55,000 additional kids to qualify, nine times more than today. If only half of the newly eligible took advantage, taxpayers would be on the hook for an additional $160 million; $320 million if every eligible child took it. Which set of taxpayers do we intend to shoulder with this increased financial burden?
Other language in the budget would have paid child care employers to finance recruitment, retention bonuses for their employees and benefit grants for New Hampshire child care employers. The grants, taxpayer dollars mind you, could be used by owners of child care centers for their business and their employees’ benefit: health savings accounts; mentor credentialing and support networks; sign-on and retention incentives or wage increases; professional costs such as training hours, CPR or memberships in professional organizations; child care tuition assistance; credit toward the employees’ share of health insurance costs; paid time off; child care tuition discounts; student loan repayment; telemedicine coverage; and payment toward physical exams, certifications or background checks. Your tax dollars.
Recently, our Executive Council approved money for Community Action Partners to receive $3.4 million in taxpayer money over two years. The majority of the work their 14 employees perform is helping families find child care that fits their needs. At an average cost of nearly $250,000 per employee, is this taxpayer money well spent? Are these jobs even necessary?
As a legislator, I find it repugnant to tax our citizens, then redistribute those dollars to special interest groups and individuals. Redistribution is socialism, not conservatism. Any legislator claiming to be a free-market, small-government proponent who backs child care paid for by others, for the benefit of themselves, their donors and special interest groups, needs to be called out.
We have all seen the national news highlighting massive amounts of day care fraud going on. With more than 400 day cares here in New Hampshire, many of them in private homes, is HHS auditing how our taxpayer funds are being dispersed? How many, and how often, are subsidized day care facilities being audited?
I’ve focused mainly on the financial side of New Hampshire’s taxpayer-funded child care programs, but it would take another entire column to address the societal implications of child care. That’s a larger discussion for another day. Briefly, though, consider a few questions. Is it really to the benefit of our children to place them, beginning as infants, with people who can never have the same deep, long-term interest in a child’s well-being as a parent? Is the parent-child relationship damaged when a child spends more time each week with a caregiver than with a parent? Is it worth pushing one parent into full-time work just to pay for child care, often justified as a benefit to business? Have our children become nothing more than accessories?
Recently, I saw a social media post by one of my favorite national legislators, Rep. Thomas Massie. In his post, he stated: “When did it become the federal government’s role to provide daycare?” Exactly my point.
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Rep. Len Turcotte, R-Barrington, represents Strafford District 4. He is a former chairman of the House Municipal and County Government Committee.