According to a new report from Children at Risk, the South Plains is running out of places to take your kids that don’t also take half your paycheck. Twenty-one zip codes around Lubbock now qualify as “child care deserts,” which is basically urban-planning lingo for “good luck, you’re on your own.” The group kicked off its “Texas Tour” in Lubbock (naturally), gathering local parents and advocates to talk about how impossible it’s become to find affordable, quality child care.
The numbers are bleak: infant care alone can swallow up nearly half of a family’s annual income. That’s not counting the heater that breaks in December or the price of groceries pretending to be “on sale.” The United Way’s Amanda McAfee reminded everyone that most families in the ALICE category — Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed — are already juggling bills like a circus act with no safety net.
The state, ever magnanimous, has passed a few bills to “help.” HB 2294 raises reimbursement rates for higher-quality providers (translation: a few centers might get a little less broke), and SB 1 throws $100 million statewide at the problem. Which sounds nice until you realize that’s about $4.25 per crying toddler.
Children at Risk says child care is a “two-generation approach,” meaning parents can’t work without it, and kids can’t thrive without it. It’s a lovely sentiment that will undoubtedly be discussed to death as the tour moves on to Odessa — another place that’s definitely got this all figured out.
Maybe next session the Legislature can redefine “child care desert” as “personal responsibility zone” and call it a win.
https://www.kcbd.com/2025/10/07/new-data-shows-south-plains-faces-growing-child-care-deserts/
