Dear John,

At the beginning of this year, Monday mornings felt like Monday mornings, and every day was normal. Smelling fresh coffee outside of the local coffee shop, picking up dry cleaning, and dropping off children with caregivers were all normal. Little did we know what our new reality was going to be in the next few months. But what we did know then that we still know now is that child care is essential to everything about our everyday lives. And unless the House and Senate prioritize $50 billion in the next relief package for child care, we won’t have a child care system to return to.

While so many of us long to return to “normal” these days, we also have to acknowledge that the child care system we had before this crisis already wasn’t working for most families and child care providers. Care was unaffordable for families, and hard to find. Educators and child care providers—disproportionately women of color and immigrant women—made poverty-level wages and struggled to put food on the table for their own families.

That’s because our leaders have put child care on the back burner for far too long. Child care has been largely left out of the previous COVID-19 relief bills—with only $3.5 billion provided so far, a drop in the bucket of the $50 billion we’d need to keep this crucial part of our economy going. The crisis has already caused many providers to close, with many permanently shutting their doors. Those who remained open over the last few months, or are starting to reopen, are facing new operating conditions that are extremely important, but impossible to implement, without additional resources. And providers who remain closed cannot last much longer without revenue coming in. Unless Congress provides significant funding for the industry now, we will not have a system to return to when this crisis ends. Tell your representatives to act now to save child care.

How does an economy safely open? How do we weather this storm together? By investing in high-quality, affordable child care and valuing educators. For decades, we have not addressed the gross underfunding of child care, even as it is a foundational part of our economy. We cannot continue to allow elected officials to ignore our needs. Reach out to your representatives and let them know that child care is essential for you and it will not survive without a $50 billion investment now. Let them know your voice matters and you refuse to let child care fall by the wayside. 

Thank you,
Catherine White
she/her/hers
Director, Child Care and Early Learning
National Women's Law Center