PSU students tackle America’s child care crisis in Map the System Global Final

For more than 50 years, the United States has failed to pass large scale federal investments for universal preschool and childcare. This lack of investment has made childcare difficult to find and very expensive for many families. A group of students in Portland State’s MBA program have teamed up to complete a deep dive examination of the causes and consequences of the American childcare crisis and to develop potential solutions that could be implemented in Oregon and beyond. 

This spring the team won the PSU semi-finals of the annual Map the System competition, an annual contest organized by the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Oxford that asks student teams to use system thinking approaches to examine a societal problem. The team then competed against 44 teams in the Map the System Global final in the United Kingdom in June.  

The team, which is named the Matlidas after the title character of the Roald Dahl book about a neglected girl growing up in England, includes Sara Barrett, Sara Bangash, Liz Chibucos, Faith Diwirja and Anupama Budaraju. The Matildas were advised by Abby Chroman, program manager of social innovation and entrepreneurship at PSU, and Michelle Swinehart, senior instructor in University Studies.

Diving deep into the childcare crisis

The Map the System competition involves preparing a research paper, a visual systems map and a 10 minute presentation. The Matildas used a variety of research methods in their project, including reading newspaper and journal articles, exploring census data trends and interviewing child care providers, parents, policy makers, Portland State professors and others. They credit their MBA coursework for helping prepare them to tackle the Map the System challenge. 

Through their research the Matildas examined the extent of the childcare crisis and its root causes and consequences.

They learned that in Oregon 60 percent of people live in childcare deserts. When childcare is available, it’s very expensive. Center-based care costs $1,100 per month for an infant in Oregon, and, on average, U.S. parents spend 34% of their income on childcare. This means childcare is unaffordable for 60% of American families with low to moderate incomes. Currently, only 1% of GDP is invested in child welfare programs in the United States. 

“One thing that really surprised me is that we have had nationally funded childcare twice in our history: One was during World War II and one was during the Nixon administration and he quickly vetoed it and didn't allow it to go through,” says Chibucos. “Essentially, we made the case that it was a necessary thing for society…But we refuse to do it now. I think that really speaks to the point that we don't tend to fix problems in this country until the most privileged of us are actually affected by it. Otherwise we let people fend for themselves.” 

Along similar lines, when it comes to the private sector, the team learned that in Oregon some high tech companies like Intel and Nike coordinate with childcare providers, which helps higher earners secure childcare spots. Retail workers, on the other hand, are less likely to work for a company with such an arrangement. “They’re still struggling and juggling to maintain their jobs,” says Diwirja.

Not investing in childcare has drastic consequences both for families and society as a whole. When families pay so much for childcare they have less money available for food and medical expenses and both parents and children can suffer the effects of chronic stress. At a societal level, lack of affordable childcare means fewer parents, and especially mothers, stay in the labor force. The lack of affordable preschool also has downstream effects since poor early childhood education is linked to low job success and increased risk of incarceration. 

“Studies show high quality preschool leads to greater achievement in school and career and therefore we could see ramifications of the system in the future workforce,” says Barrett. 

The systems thinking approach required for the Map the System competition also helped the Matildas see connections between aspects of the problem that they may not have otherwise, such as how childcare deserts can lead workers to travel long distances between their homes, childcare provider and work, which in turn can affect whether parents stay in the workforce and their career choices. 

“Visualizing a problem like this with the map really helps a person see the enormity of a problem and how it is affected by so many things,” says Chibucos. “You can only picture so much in your head. One reason why I really loved this research so much is that the visualization aspect of it really drives your points home.”

Systems thinking also allows people to examine a societal problem at different scales. “When we do the mapping system, we keep rewinding again and again and again to make sure that there's no forgotten issues and then after we have the full map we can zoom in on particular issues and zoom out again see to see the big picture of how it relates to another issue,” says Diwirja. “It teaches us how to think critically about solving a very complicated issue that no one has ever solved before.” 

When it comes to solutions to the childcare crisis, the team came up with some possibilities, including creating a database of childcare and preschools and making sure they are evenly distributed in all communities, expanding Multnomah County’s Preschool for All program statewide and incentivizing landlords to convert spaces in office parks into childcare centers which could make surrounding empty lots more attractive to parent-centric businesses.

“All of our solutions require a combination of public and private involvement. Especially in the United States, where the free market reigns, you have to find the solutions that are beneficial for business,” says Chibucos. “If women are able to work if they find the right childcare, we’re talking about trillions of dollars of GDP increase. That should be motivating. It’s just a matter of talking to the right people and finding the right equation.”

Globetrotting problem solvers

For the Global finals, two of the Matildas participated remotely while the others traveled to Oxford to present their project.

“It was awesome to see so many people from so many countries and then hear their really exciting ideas,” says Barrett. “It was inspiring.” 

Teams from 21 different countries competed in the finals. The Matildas left the competition as Global finalists. 

“It was a great reward for all the hard work—just to be amongst these people—because everyone there was so amazingly smart and the students just have so much potential to do good in the world,” says Chibucos, who is eager to participate in the competition again next year. 

“I would say for students who want to do this in the future that it was so fun. If there is a problem that's been nagging at you— if there's something that just really bugs you about society—this is the perfect method of exploring that topic, to actually find some possible solutions and to get people's attention,” says Chibucos. “I think every group that we talked to at Oxford was in conversation with policymakers or influential people that could really start to tackle the problem they were studying so it's a great way to take action.”