The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated a number of interrelated crises, each caused by years of trickle-down chicanery. One of the biggest crises this nation faces is a lack of good, affordable child care, because it puts America’s future directly in peril – with at least one economist saying it could distort the economy for the next 20-30 years.

For years, trickle-downers have refused to recognize that affordable child care is a key component of a modernized economy. Parents, seeking economic opportunity, often need help taking care of their children. If they can’t find child care that costs less than they make at their jobs, parents – often mothers – are forced to withdraw from the workforce and take care of their children.

Left virtually unchecked in most parts of the country, child care costs have soared over the years – adding up to a year’s worth of college tuition in some cities. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic stands to make this bad situation even worse. Coronavirus shutdowns put many child care centers out of business, so as parents are going back to work, they have even fewer options for their children – driving prices even higher.

Elizabeth Warren and Patty Murray recognize that child care is a key component of COVID-19 recovery, but not enough elected officials have joined them in championing child care – or seem to understand that 12 million families with children can’t go back to work without it.

We can’t wait around for even more child care operators to shutter. We need bold investment that not only covers the costs of providers and families, but also looks to the future and reimagines what universal child care looks like.

That’s where you come in: We need you – regardless of whether or not the need for child care impacts your daily life – to make sure families get the help they need. If they don’t, our economy will recover much more slowly because working parents won’t be able to afford to return to work. That’s why we’re trying to get 10,000 community members to contact their representatives demanding investment in child care:

Will you contact your representative this moment to demand that they take action to help working families get the child care they need?

Solving the child care crisis will play a crucial part in recovering from the pandemic, and we need your help.

Paul Constant
Civic Action