Oregon lawmakers appear ready to make a change in the state’s Employment Related Day Care program that will have benefits beyond those directly related to the bill.

The program helps low-income families, many of which are headed by a single parent, by subsidizing child care costs for working family members. In a region of high rents and low wages, the day care subsidies can make a real difference in a family’s life.

There’s a problem with the current setup, however, as the folks who run the Head Start preschool program in Deschutes and Crook counties will tell you. Because your day care subsidy disappears if you lose a job, even briefly, families can be forced to move if the breadwinner is unable to find work quickly.

And that causes problems for such programs as Head Start. The NeighorImpact-run preschools serve about 450 youngsters in the two counties and keep a waiting list nearly that large. They do so because as children move, they must fill newly vacant slots with children who qualify for the program.

That’s difficult for staff and worse for the kids involved. Those forced to move may or may not get into a Head Start program in a new community; those picked up mid-year may be well behind their peers in the skills Head Start gives them.

House Bill 2015 would make families eligible for day care subsidies for a year at a time, regardless of changes in their employment status. The measure is sponsored by Rep. Tina Kotek, D-Portland, and Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, D-Portland, and two Republican co-sponsors are Rep. John Huffman of The Dalles and Gene Whisnant of Sunriver.

The change would allow a mom who is laid off to look for new work with less reason to worry about moving. It would allow her young child to stay at Head Start, where, statistics show, he’s likely to graduate far more prepared for kindergarten than he otherwise would be.

Oregon benefits when its low-income parents can hold jobs and low-income children get a good educational start. The changes in the bill will help ensure that happens.