Reimagining Maryland's Child Care Infrastructure: Lessons from Two Summers at Maryland Family Network
Over my past two summers as an intern at Maryland Family Network, my perspective on early childhood policy has fundamentally transformed. During my first summer, I began to see child care through a new lens: not just as a way to help children thrive, but also as a highly strategic and bipartisan economic policy. In the field of economics, the child care industry is a classic example of market failure: consumers cannot afford to pay what care costs to provide, and providers cannot afford to charge less without going under. Standard markets naturally reach an equilibrium that maximizes the total combined value generated for both buyers and sellers. The child care sector, however, struggles to achieve this state. As stakeholders across education and policy recognize, when unaffordable care forces parents out of the labor market, the loss extends far beyond individual households.
Expanding child care access generates a powerful positive externality, creating broad benefits for society by enabling parents to work, stabilizing local businesses, and driving economic growth across Maryland. This summer, I set out to explore a key way that government intervention reduces the Maryland child care shortage and corrects for the market’s inefficiencies: the Maryland Child Care Scholarship program.
The Maryland Child Care Scholarship program helps income-eligible families across Maryland pay for early care. Parents submit applications to the state, the state verifies and sorts families based on specific priority criteria, and then the state grants eligible families child care vouchers to be used with qualifying providers. Providers then receive compensation for their services directly from the Maryland Comptroller’s Office.
Unfortunately, the program is currently operating under a partial enrollment freeze because demand for scholarships has exceeded available state funding. The Maryland State Department of Education reports that the program grew from approximately 21,000 children served in January 2023 to more than 45,000 children in 2025, reaching maximum budget capacity and leading to a freeze on most new scholarship awards beginning May 1, 2025. Eligible families may still apply, but many are placed on a waitlist until funding becomes available.
Local governments across Maryland are increasingly seeking ways to supplement child care access, but standing up separate municipal programs often diverts funds into unavoidable administrative costs. My work this summer focused on designing a collaborative, centralized model that makes it simple for local jurisdictions to contribute to the State’s scholarship pool. By leveraging the State Comptroller’s existing fiscal clearinghouse, local tax dollars can be voluntarily routed into protected state subaccounts to clear local waitlists. This approach respects local fiscal sovereignty while removing administrative barriers, guaranteeing that local contributions directly translate into expanded child care access.
Although I have now reached the end of my internship, MFN expects to continue pursuing this program adjustment and begin coordinating with the Comptroller’s Office to discuss next steps for implementation. The Child Care Scholarship program is a key governmental tool in reducing the Maryland child care shortage, and MFN stands well-positioned to ensure that it is operating with maximum efficiency. I am incredibly grateful to have gotten the opportunity to explore a solution to an issue that impacts not just the child care sector, but the whole state of Maryland.
Sabina C.