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Problem
For a long time, the US Navy has been suffering from a lack of capacity in childcare facilities more than other military branches, which creates additional problems such as long childcare waiting lists and additional budgetary costs.
Discussion
The US Navy has been suffering for decades from the insufficient capacity of childcare facilities.
It is necessary to note that this problem is also relevant for the civilian population and other US military branches, especially the Army. According to Werner (2019), “lack of available and affordable child care is a national issue for our generation; for our Navy, it is a critical readiness issue” (para. 4).
The COVID-19 pandemic gave humanity a lot of misery and sadness, as well as three good things. Increased international collaboration and public awareness are two of those three good things that the COVID-19 crisis brought to the world. The third one is that the event highlighted the issue of lack of capacity in the Navy childcare. The Department of Defense (DoD) Military Family Readiness Council expressed their concern and recommended expanding childcare capacity across all military sectors in fall 2020 (Military Times, 2020).
The reason for this increased attention from the internal organizations of the US DoD is apparent. The readiness of a warfighter directly depends on the well-being of their family (Military Times, 2020). Therefore, the DoD must provide military personnel with all the necessary needs and infrastructure, including childcare structures, to maintain the Navy’s full combat readiness.
Lack of capacity in childcare as a core problem creates additional ones. These are long childcare waitlists and additional budgetary spending. As of 2019, The US Navy had “9,000 infants and toddlers that its child care centers don’t have room for…” (Werner, 2019, p. 1). The US Navy needs to expand its capacity for childcare to address these interconnected problems successfully. Increasing the capacity of childcare requires significant financial costs associated with investing in new or existing child development centers and other related structures (Jowers, 2021).
The construction of new childcare installations requires not only big money but also time, usually from three to five years (Jowers, 2021). Moreover, it also needs an appropriate physical place (Congressional Research Service, 2019). The sphere of influence of the US Navy is vast, meaning highly variable terrain. Sometimes the future construction site requires adaptation, which also increases lead times and costs. Delay is unacceptable in Navy childcare’s current critical condition that is also complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Delay will not only accelerate the impending infrastructure crisis within the US Navy but will also exacerbate it. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a number of short- and long-term measures to start solving the major problem now.
Recommendation
- Increase the salaries of the personnel of childcare facilities.
- Hire more childcare providers in existing childcare installations.
- Draw attention to and make the profession of a childcare provider more attractive by establishing and implementing recruitment incentives and retention payments. For example, US Army officials “implemented $1,000 recruitment incentives for family child care providers, as well as $1,000 retention payments” this spring (Jowers, 2021, p. 11).
- Build new childcare infrastructure in places where capacity is most lacking and where the most significant number of military operations will be taking place in the coming decades. This measure has already been described above.
References
Congressional Research Service. (2020). Military child development program: Background and issues. Web.
Jowers, K. (2021). This is what the pandemic taught us about military child care. Military Times. Web.
Military Times. (2020). DoD council to recommend expanding military child care capacity. Military Officers Association of America. Web.
Werner, B. (2019). Navy child care waitlist for on-base services is 9,000 kids long. USNI News. Web.
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