For families in the U.S., the costs of high-quality child care are exorbitant, especially for those with children under age five. A new policy proposal, "Public Investments in Child Care," by Dartmouth Associate Professor of Economics Elizabeth Cascio, finds that current federal child care tax policies are not benefiting the families most burdened by child care costs. Therefore, Cascio outlines a new policy that could replace the current federal child care tax policies. The research examines child care for children ages 0-12 years, with a focus on 0-4 years.

The study was one of the papers published in The 51% Driving Growth through Women's Economic Participation, an e-book published by The Hamilton Project at Brookings in conjunction with the forum, "Policies to Promote Women's Economic Opportunity" on Oct. 19 at Stanford University, which was co-hosted by The Hamilton Project, LeanIn.org and Stanford Law School (#The51Percent). Cascio presented her policy recommendations at the forum's roundtable on "Expanding Access to Affordable, High-Quality Child Care."

To make high-quality child care more accessible, Cascio outlines three goals for her proposed reforms: 1) relieve the burden of child care costs for families, especially for the more, disadvantaged families; 2) encourage maternal employment, which is critical to building human capital in our society; and 3) recast how we think about child care, as it is a long term investment that supports child development.

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