From Moms Rising (https://www.momsrising.org/):
“I’m frustrated that our childcare costs more than our rent AND our car payments COMBINED.”– Christina
Each day at MomsRising we hear from people like Christina who are struggling to find high-quality, affordable early learning opportunities, like childcare and Pre-K for little ones. I’m sure you’ve heard these same stories in your communities too. The fact of the matter is that childcare and pre-K costs are sky high—in fact, in 30 states and the District of Columbia, infant care costs exceed the average cost of college tuition. [1] On top of that, approximately half of American families live in a “childcare desert,” meaning they can’t access the quality childcare they need. [2] Additionally, early learning providers, 94% of whom are women, are struggling significantly since childcare is one of the lowest paying industries in the United States. [3]
It doesn’t have to be this way. Urge the U.S. Congress to support the Child Care for Working Families Act at http://action.momsrising.org/sign/MurrayScott/.
Our families have been waiting for a real solution to this widespread problem and we just got it! Senator Patty Murray (WA), Senator Bob Casey (PA) and Representative Bobby Scott (VA) just introduced the Child Care for Working Families Act, which will help comprehensively address the struggles our families are facing every day to find high-quality, affordable child care. [4,5]
We know that moms, dads, and caretakers across the U.S. struggle every day to figure out how to balance work and high-quality child care in an affordable, accessible manner. Just ask Minnesota mom Jessica who is struggling with all of these issues:
“My husband and I are both teachers, and don’t have a lot of money, but we were able to find an excellent daycare and preschool for our 1 and 4-year-old. We can afford it because they don’t charge over the summer if we pull our kids for those three months. However, we do need to go into savings to do so (we spent $24,000 in child care last year), and we are really struggling with whether we can afford to have a third child. We would love to, but we don’t know if we could keep our home and have all of our children in the same quality care.”
This is such a big issue that Jessica came to the U.S. Capitol this week to tell her story to members of Congress and the media. We are ready for change! Like Jessica, we are ready for the struggles of working families and the future of our children to be taken seriously!
Parents like Jessica are struggling every day to pay for early learning and find programs that work for their kids. We hear this story repeated during political debates and in the news, but we haven’t seen any national solutions to this widespread problem.
Until Senator Patty Murray (WA), Senator Bob Casey (PA) and Representative Bobby Scott (VA) introduced the Child Care for Working Families Act. We are inspired, thrilled, excited, and overall relieved that three leaders in Congress are taking a stand to address these issues. Here is what the Child Care for Working Families Act does:
- Lower childcare costs for low-income and middle-income families to a maximum of 7% of household income through a sliding scale, regardless of how many children they have.
- Support universal access to high-quality preschool programs for all low- and middle-income 3 and 4 year-olds.
- Significantly improve compensation and training for the childcare workforce to ensure that our nation’s teachers and caregivers have the support they need.
- Assist parents in selecting the childcare provider of their choice—whether that be a center or family childcare home, friend, relative or neighbor. In addition, improve care during non-traditional hours to help meet the needs of working families.
- Support for more inclusive, high-quality childcare providers and centers for children with disabilities.
- Help all Head Start programs meet new expanded duration requirements and provide full-day, full-year programming.
When so many people are struggling with a particular problem you need a far-reaching solution to address the issue. The Child Care for Working Families Act does just that!
The truth is, this legislation couldn’t come at a more perfect time. Because of the high-cost of early learning and the lack of options, many parents are forced to leave the workforce and forgo a reliable paycheck. This results in $28.9 billion a year in lost wages. [6] This hurts our families AND our economy.
All children deserve the opportunity to succeed, which includes early care in safe, nurturing, educational environments. And every childcare provider deserves to earn a livable wage. In fact, the quality of childcare is dependent on it— low wages undermine our ability to recruit and retain qualified providers. But the lack of public investment in childcare means that families are paying more than they can really afford for childcare—in many states the same as rent or public college tuition— and providers are struggling to get by on below poverty wages.
High-quality, affordable childcare opportunities are of top concern to our families. In fact, a 2016 poll found that 90% of voters (both Republicans and Democrats) agree that our elected leaders should work together to make quality early childhood education, including childcare, more accessible and affordable to low- and middle-income families. [7]
Parents can’t work if their childcare isn’t working for them. And when parents can’t work because of lack of quality, affordable early learning options, our entire economy suffers.
Off the top of my head I can think of at least ten other moms and dads who would benefit from this legislation and would want to speak out on this issue. After you are done signing our letter to Congress, can you forward this to the moms, dads, and concerned people in your life that also would want to sign on? Please also make sure to post our action page to Facebook and Twitter.
[1] Child Care Aware. “Parents and the High Cost of Childcare: 2016.” [2] Rasheed Malik and Katie Hamm. “Mapping America’s Child Care Deserts.” Center for American Progress, August 30, 2017. [3] Julie Kashen, Halley Potter, and Andrew Stettner. “Quality Jobs, Quality Child Care.” The Century Foundation, June 13, 2016. [4] “Child Care for Working Families Act.” [5] Andrea Gonzalez-Ramirez. “This New Bill Could Make Child Care More Affordable for Working Families.” Refinery29, September, 14, 2017. [6] Elizabeth Dias. “The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Child-Care Problem.” Time, October 13, 2016. [7] First Five Years Fund. “A Divided Electorate is United on Early Childhood Education.”
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