Parents, educators, clergy, business leaders and childcare advocates have launched the Dallas Childcare Works coalition to urge Dallas County commissioners to place a proposed childcare tax on the November 2026 ballot, arguing the region’s childcare shortage is keeping thousands of parents out of the workforce and straining the economy.
If approved by voters, the proposal would levy an additional 3 cents per $100 of assessed property value. Advocates estimate that would cost the average homeowner about $10 a month, based on average Dallas County home values, and generate roughly $132 million annually for childcare scholarships, provider stabilization, nontraditional-hour and out-of-school-time programs.
Organizers with the new Dallas Childcare Works coalition said the measure could become one of the largest local childcare investment initiatives in the country if approved by voters.
“Today we are here for children, the reason so many of us do this work, and the reason we know this moment matters,” said Hillary Evans, vice president of policy and advocacy at United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, at a news conference on Thursday.
Evans said nearly 19,000 Dallas County parents who want to work are out of the workforce because they cannot find reliable, affordable childcare. She said childcare costs average roughly $12,000 a year in the region, while shortages drain nearly $4 billion annually from the county economy.
“Too many parents are being forced into impossible choices between earning a paycheck, caring for their children, and keeping their families afloat,” Evans said. “This is not just a family issue; it is an economic issue.”
Dallas County commissioners would ultimately need to approve ballot language by mid-August for the measure to appear on the November 2026 ballot. The proposal has already been the subject of county discussions this spring, including a packed May commissioners court meeting where parents, nonprofits and business groups urged officials to move the measure forward.
County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins has previously said the county is “looking at that model.” Commissioner Andrew Sommerman told The Dallas Morning News on Friday that voters should ultimately decide whether the county should create a dedicated childcare fund.