Congress must save child care! TAKE ACTION

Dear Friend,

Did you hear? MomsRising moms, partners, champions and YOU were heard by the White House, with President Biden sending a request just last week to Congress to pass the $16B in supplemental funding needed to save child care! You did that, we did that!

Now let’s keep up the momentum by urging Congress to save child care for millions of families by passing emergency child care funding!

Stabilization dollars that saved the child care industry from collapse during the pandemic have already expired, putting 3.2 million children at risk of losing access to child care, [1] increasing costs for families and further pushing already underpaid and undervalued early educators out of the child care workforce.

Congress providing at least $16 billion per year in emergency child care dollars while ensuring no cuts to child care and early learning programs will address the current crisis without creating a new one. This will also lay the groundwork for the sustained and transformative funding needed to ensure that high-quality and affordable child care is accessible for all families.

Tell Congress: Families Need You to Fund Child Care Now!

The pandemic exacerbated and made clear child care struggles that families have already been facing for decades. Child care has been unaffordable and unattainable for too many families with many paying a third of their take home pay to child care. [2] and more than half of the country being classified as being child care deserts—areas with an insufficient supply of licensed child care. [3]

Adding to this is the fact that early educators are not getting anywhere near the support they need to care for our nation’s children. Real wages for full-time child care teachers dropped 6.5 percent from 2012 to 2019. [4] Then with the pandemic more than one-third of child care jobs—370,000 jobs in total—were lost from February 2020 to April 2020. [5] Employment within the child care industry, unlike the overall labor market, which has already regained all jobs lost, is still below its pre-pandemic levels [6] and with moms returning to the workforce in higher levels than before, a lack of investment in care will only be disastrous for the economic security and vitality of families.

TAKE ACTION to Tell Congress That They Must Save Child Care Now!

This is why 35 Momsrising members from 20 states from around the country came together in Washington DC in late October to be heard on child care. They met with the White House and had a meet and greet on Capitol Hill with congressional child care champions. It was a powerful experience that saw some powerful results when a little over a week later President Biden announced $16 billion in emergency supplemental funding for child care!

So now it’s time to keep up that drumbeat on the $16 Billion! Click here to call on Congress to pass emergency funding for child care now!

Congress needs to hear from us so that families, children and our nation can thrive. We thank you for what you do every day to support the movement for quality, affordable and accessible child care!

-Nadia, Nina, Lauren, Elyssa, Donna, Kristin, Hanna and the whole MomsRising.org/MamásConPoder Team

[1] Child Care Cliff: 3.2 Million Children Likely to Lose Spots with End of Federal Funds

[2] Working Families Are Spending Big Money on Child Care

[3] [4] [5] [6] The Child Care Sector Is Still Struggling To Hire Workers

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