By Victoria Lim for WorkingNation.
Broadcast version by Joe Ulery for Indiana News Service reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Collaboration

A new program in Northeast Indiana is trying to ease the burden of childcare. It’s not just an issue for Noble County’s 47,000 rural residents. As WorkingNation has previously reported, the effect from the pandemic lingers, especially for women. More than 100,000 Americans miss work because of childcare problems, and the childcare sector itself has a workforce shortage.

Noble County has just launched the Tri-Share Program. Modeled after an initiative in Michigan, it’s aimed at reducing parents’ out-of-pocket childcare costs.

“A large part of our employment base is manufacturing,” says Jenna Anderson, Thrive by 5 Early Childhood Coalition coordinator. “Our childcare costs are lower than a lot of areas across the country, but it is still a struggle for many of our residents to afford the costs.

“And those costs that parents are paying often don’t cover the true cost to the childcare for providing the care. One of the local programs was losing $13 per day per child, and another has said their costs only cover 80% of their expenses. That’s not sustainable.”

The Tri-Share Program is a quick, short-term solution to address affordability. As the name suggests, it engages three parties – the parents, their employers, and the government, in this case, Noble County. Anderson reached out to the Noble County Commissioners, who provided seed funding of $50,000. Then, she connected with other stakeholders.

Supporting Employee Childcare Needs

Nate Lowe was convinced. Just about a year into his role as the superintendent for the West Noble School Corporation, he sees how challenging it is to fill critical roles like assistants who can earn up to $16 an hour working with applied skills or functioning skills students. Openings can barely attract one or two applicants.

“What [employees] are telling me is that [the Tri-Share Program] helps them to be here,” Lowe says. “If you’re at a licensed childcare program with multiple people and one of them is sick, you can still drop your child off.

“If you just have friends or family watching your child and they’re sick, then you have to stay home. The immediate effect is our employees are here more and I think the background effect is they’re happier to be here because they know we’re helping them financially in this way. It’s a little more money in their pockets and certainly every little bit helps, and they can be on the clock on more often.”

Lowe heard about the Tri-Share Program from an instructional aide who works at one of his high schools, Alicia Squire. She experienced the very scenario Lowe described.

“My babysitter was my husband’s uncle. He decided he needed to get a regular job because the economy is bad and they weren’t making it. I called a local daycare…and started there within a couple weeks. It was really expensive. I was paying the uncle $50 a week, and daycare is $120 a week.

“I don’t make a lot of money and my husband had a big job change…and took a huge pay cut,” Squire explains. “That was pretty rough. So, $120 a week was pretty hard. It wasn’t even worth it to work at that point.”

The daycare mentioned the program to Squire – who mentioned it to Lowe. He lobbied his school board which agreed to designate $5,000 of this school year’s budget to help their employees. He says while this can help individual employees, it ultimately helps to serve the broader student population.

“This is serving our kids well,” Lowe says. “We are fully staffed, where sometimes it’s one assistant-to-three students, or one-to-two. Some students need one-on-one attention, and if that person is not at work [because of childcare issues], we’re not serving kids like we’re supposed to.”

Squire says splitting the cost of childcare with her employer and the county enables her to have enough money for her kids’ – ages four and six – swim lessons, school lunches, and cheerleading.

“It puts more food in the house, more gas in the car because the cost of gas has gone up,” she says. “Thank God for Tri-Share. I would’ve had to stay home, which is not a bad idea, but I just love what I do.”

Possible Program Expansion

“Employers are truly beginning to understand that a lack of childcare is affecting their hiring needs,” Anderson says. “I am currently working with an employer who is developing childcare within their business because they lost two employees to a lack of childcare and were unable to hire two replacements for them also due to lack of childcare. While the Tri-Share Program right now isn’t addressing the larger issue of capacity, it can help employers retain staff by contributing to their childcare costs, and perhaps recruit employees from other places that might not be offering support through the Tri-Share Program.”

There’s an income limit families must meet or fall below to qualify. So far, four families are part of the Tri-Share Program. Since county funds are used, the program is currently limited to families who live in Noble County. But because the county is relatively small and has employees who qualify based on income and live outside of Noble County, Anderson says she is working closely with the Northeast Indiana Early Childhood Coalition to expand the program to all of Northeast Indiana.

“This is a big burden for families, especially single parents who don’t have the option to not work. However, many families, in order to be stable in this economy, need to be a two-parent working household,” says Anderson.

“Still, the costs of childcare place a big burden on them, financially. The community’s wellbeing is at stake, as well. We already have employers who cannot fill open jobs, and parents who cannot get into the workforce – even though they want to – because they can’t find childcare at all, let alone quality and affordable childcare,” she says. “I think the fact that we are supporting any families is a success. It’s certainly considered a success to those families.”


Victoria Lim wrote this article for WorkingNation.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


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AT&T customers may experience service disruptions as the worker's union, Communications Workers of America, initiates a strike to try to continue their negotiations with AT&T through what they claim is "bad faith" bargaining. The CWA, representing employees in the Southeast, has voiced concerns over AT&T's approach to new contract negotiations, citing issues related to health-care costs and decision-making at the bargaining table.

Michael Devane, president of CWA Local 3104 in Fort Lauderdale, expressed frustration with the company's representatives.

"Just basically kicking the can down the road. You know, just humoring people just going through the motions. Not really bargaining seriously. So District 3 filed an unfair labor practice charge against them, and that's why we are out on strike right now for that," he said.

"We remain committed to reaching a fair agreement with CWA District 3, and we have offered to bring in a federal mediator to ensure there is no question about either side's commitment to this process," AT&T said in a statement.

The company also assured customers that "business continuity measures are in place so that we can continue to provide our customers with the great service they deserve."

CWA members across the country will hold up signs at work on Thursday to show their solidarity.

One of several sticking points in the negotiations is the health-care plan. According to the CWA, AT&T is pushing for cost structures based on the company's national average, which does not reflect the lower health-care costs in the Southeast. Devane hopes for a good-faith effort by the company to negotiate.

"Well, I'd like to get this thing moving along there. There has to be some adults in the room and please get back to the table and let's get this thing done. We all have families. We take care of and company as customers. They got to take care of, and we'd like to get back to normal," he said.

As the union and company remain at an impasse, AT&T has proposed entering federal mediation. Customers in the region may experience service delays, as AT&T is currently operating with a reduced workforce during the ongoing strike.


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The next time you drive over a newly built highway in Minnesota, the concrete may have been poured by a Native American trained through a pre-apprenticeship program.

The effort is designed to create more career pathways for younger Indigenous adults.

Moke Eaglefeathers, apprenticeship coordinator for Cement Masons Plasterers and Shophands Local 633, has helped lead the 10-week training camp in New Brighton for the past several years. This year's session recently wrapped up. Before each summer begins, he travels to Native American reservations around the state to recruit participants. Those who sign up get a rigorous education on what it is like to do the work.

"We're teaching a skill that a robot will never be able to learn," Eaglefeathers pointed out.

He explained the training program's no-nonsense vibes illustrate how demanding cement mason work is, especially in the many types of weather Minnesota throws at outdoor workers. If they graduate, participants are on track for in-demand, financially stable union jobs. It is welcome news, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics noting Native Americans often have higher unemployment rates than the total population.

Eaglefeathers acknowledged they often do not see a perfect graduation rate but added it is acceptable because they do not want to set up participants for failure. For those who complete the training, their chances of a successful career are much greater than before they started.

"We normally have about an 80% to 90% job placement rate," Eaglefeathers reported. "Then, we put them with a contractor that's more their speed."

He stressed comfort level is another big part of a job which is both physically and mentally demanding. Eaglefeathers estimated most classes are filled with students in the 18 to 35 age range, with those closer to middle age occasionally signing up if they are seeking to reset their job path.


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Unions representing fast food workers are asking the state's new Fast Food Council to support a 70-cent-per-hour boost in the minimum wage at its next meeting on Sept. 11.

The minimum wage for fast food workers was recently raised to $20 an hour but it works out to just over $41,000 a year, which, in California, is significantly less than the average cost of living.

Linda Becker, director of regional partnerships in the Bay Area for the nonprofit Merit America, supports a higher minimum wage but said it is just a start.

"While raising the minimum wage offers an immediate paycheck boost for low-wage workers, it's just one piece of the puzzle," Becker explained. "We still really, firmly believe that a low-wage job should be a steppingstone and not a dead end."

Merit America offers intensive career counseling and online courses in IT support, data analytics, cybersecurity, project management and UX design. It costs nothing to start and a maximum of $5,700 total. According to Forbes magazine, it costs on average more than $53,000 a year to cover housing, medical care, food, transportation and taxes in California, the third-highest cost of living in the country.

Becker pointed out learners only start to pay Merit America back, at $95 a month, after they get a higher-paying job.

"The average wage gain that we see is about $24,000 a year," Becker reported. "Which is a significant, kind of life-changing increase of wages, post-program."

California's general minimum wage is $16 an hour. Over the next few years, the state is also phasing in a higher minimum wage, of $18 to $25 per hour, for certain health care positions.