Support Federal Child Care Funding!

Pre-pandemic, the nation lost $57 billion in revenue, productivity, and wages simply because of a lack of adequate federal funding for child care. And the stats remain dire:

• More than 1 in 5 child care providers have lost their jobs since the start of the pandemic.
• Parents of young children with disabilities are three times more likely than parents of non-disabled children to experience job disruptions because of problems with child care
• Black and multiracial parents are nearly twice as likely to quit their job, not take a new job, or greatly change their job due to issues with child care.

Please pledge to support federal child care funding that goes beyond COVID-19.

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The COVID-19 pandemic just exacerbated something that has always been true: though vital for working parents, child care is underfunded and outrageously expensive for most American families, making access to quality care unattainable for more than 2 million parents a year.

• More than 50% of Americans and 60 percent of rural Americans live in child care deserts, which are defined as areas where there are either no licensed child care providers for children under the age of five or less than one slot in a licensed child care center for every three children.
• Black women and women of color comprise about 40% of the child care industry—a majority women industry largely relying on poverty wages and public assistance due to inadequate federal support.

That’s why funding child care can’t stop with one stimulus package to get the industry’s head above water during the pandemic. Instead, we must make sure all early educators receive workforce supports and livable wages, and children can access quality child care through robust, long-term federal funding.

America’s economic recovery simply cannot succeed without access to quality child care.