Advocates tell county officials that childcare boosts the economy
by Emily Harris and Documenter Amy Spring of Uplift Local The Gorge | Jul 22, 2025 | Klickitat County
Johanna Roe is pushing a big dollar figure: $1,455,417.
“I think it’s a pretty significant amount of money,” Roe, project coordinator with the Klickitat County Childcare Committee, told county commissioners during a July 15 session about childcare needs in local communities.
She wasn’t asking commissioners to spend that amount of money. The $1.4 million figure equals the combined annual full-time minimum-wage earnings of 42 people who could join the workforce if they had access to affordable childcare.
“When you have 42 child care slots available, you have 42 opportunities for people to work, and they can work full time,” Roe said.
The childcare committee works to get new childcare businesses up and running in Klickitat County. Washington Gorge Action Programs serves as the committee’s fiscal sponsor, overseeing grants the group receives. So far, the committee has helped five programs start. Combined, they offer 42 spots.
“If you had people who were working at higher wage jobs, or you had two providers, you know, mom and dad, maybe, who could go out and work, that [$1.4 million] would double,” Roe said.
At the July 15 meeting, advocates repeated the theme that childcare is an investment that leads to economic growth.
Lynn Mason, who spoke during a public comment period, said that the struggle to find care for her son made it challenging to find employment.
“I had to find jobs that I could work around to make sure that I was available for my son and piece together lots of situations,” she told commissioners, adding that if her work schedule didn’t match her son’s care schedule it was hard to be productive. “One child care situation ends before the next one begins. It’s a real puzzle.”
A county employee identified only as Richard said he appreciates county policies that allow the flexibility he sometimes needs to take care of his five children, ranging from 3 to 13 years old.
“It is a real issue,” he said. “I would say on three separate occasions, either I quit my job or my wife would quit her job in order to accommodate childcare.”
County commission chair Ron Ihrig wanted to know the largest barrier to creating more childcare locally that the county might help overcome.
Advocates who hope to start a childcare center that might handle a large number of children and parents’ varying schedules suggested government officials could consider no- or low-cost leases for unused buildings, or investing economic development funds into childcare.
For example, Goldendale School District has a plot of land that it has offered to lease for a minimal fee for a childcare facility to be built, superintendent Ellen Perconti told commissioners. The district wouldn’t run the facility, simply make the land available.
The Washington legislature tweaked a few zoning-related laws this year, including requiring local governments to permit childcare centers without special reviews, except in areas zoned for industry, including light industry.
Commissioner Todd Andrews said the board could “potentially look at” zoning carve-outs for childcare.
But testimony at the meeting made it clear that the needs go well beyond a place to drop off young children during a parent’s workday. After-school programs that have been partially paid for by federal funds are now facing cuts.
Rich Polkinghorn, superintendent of the White Salmon Valley School District, said he learned July 1 that a half-million dollars in federal funds he had budgeted for the coming school year are now frozen. Part of the money paid for after-school programs serving 125 students in kindergarten through 8th grade.
“That’s providing safe after school care with trusted adults. That’s offering academic enrichment, that’s providing them safe travel to and from school,” Polkinghorn said. “We’re still in limbo on whether those will become available or not, but as of right now, with them being frozen, there’s no way for us as a school district to adjust our budgets to accommodate half a million dollars.”
He also said the lack of local childcare comes up when he’s trying to hire.
Advocates did not make a specific request of commissioners beyond continuing to pay attention to the need, including as budget conversations begin this fall. Commissioners made no commitments.
“There’s a lot of needs from a lot of different directions,” Ihrig said. “But they all hit on housing, childcare, so forth.”
Roe said the last census showed there were 918 children between ages 0 to 5 in Klickitat County.
Read full notes of the Klickitat County Commissioners July 15 meeting by Gorge Documenter Amy Spring.
[Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Johanna Roe’s first name, and to clarify the financial relationship between Klickitat County Childcare Committee and Washington Gorge Action Programs.]
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