The families of as many as 38% of children in on-base military child care could be paying higher fees this year after a set of rate adjustments.
Despite the higher costs for some families, the Defense Department has touted the change in terms of decreases in the price of child care, such as one press release titled “DoD Reduces On-Base Child Care Fees for Military Families.” Officials described the rate adjustment as more equitable for lower-income families.
President Joe Biden called for making military child care more affordable in an executive order signed in April 2023. Rather than lowering fees across the board, however, the department restructured the costs around a family income threshold of $120,000, on either side of which most families are expected to see their rates go up or down. The new rates went into effect Jan. 1.
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In a reply to emailed questions, a Pentagon spokesperson said the restructuring is meant to “make child care fees more equitable and more affordable for families with the greatest economic need by reducing the percentage of income that lower-income families devote to their child care needs.”
In other words, families now pay closer to the same income percentages for military child care. Families in one of the DoD’s “standard” market areas pay about 7% of their income for one child’s full-time care in an on-base…
