Leave the games to the kids, we need child care NOW!
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Dear Friend,
I don’t know about you, but up here in New Jersey where I live with my two
boys, it’s been a pretty rainy summer. And one thing I love to do on rainy
days is play indoor games with my kids. You know, Twister, Candyland, Hide
and Seek, the classics that I loved when I was young. Games are great for
rainy days, but not so much when it comes to child care policy decisions.
[ [link removed] ]This is why we need to tell Congress right NOW to leave the rainy day
games to our kids and robustly fund child care! Raise your voice with ours
ASAP!
Right now, Congress is rapidly finalizing the details of the budget that
will determine how much funding we have for child care and early learning.
This is a crucial week to let Congress know that we need sufficient
funding for child care and early learning so that:
* No family pays more than 7% of their income on child care
* Child care providers are paid living, family supporting wages
* Families can find affordable, high-quality child care no matter where
they live
We must let Congress know that the lack of child care is NOT a game.
Child care is the very backbone of our economy, a public good that all of
us benefit from whether or not we have young children. Without child care,
our families, our communities, our businesses, and the economy would not
function.
Women and moms, especially women and moms of color, have taken the most
responsibility for caring for our kids, our sick family members, our aging
relatives and neighbors, and supporting the people in our lives with
disabilities; all while sacrificing their own careers and wellbeing in the
process. Add this to the inordinate cost of infant and toddler care, where
families with an infant or toddler spend about 50 percent more on child
care than families with a preschooler, and the price of infant care being
higher than public college tuition in most states (!), then it’s clearer
than ever that our families cannot lose their turn to get the childcare
support they need! [1]
As part of valuing care, we must also support the women -
disproportionately Black, brown, and immigrant women - who provide it.
Child care work is one of the lowest paid professions in the United
States. You read that right. The folks caring, nurturing, and educating
our kids are some of the LOWEST paid workers in our nation. That is
despite important requirements for credentials and education for the
workforce and extensive research pointing to the importance of the early
years for young children’s healthy development and future outcomes. The
continued undervaluing of early education leaves many child care workers
(1 in 7), many of whom have their own children to support, living below
the poverty line, and only 15% have access to health care. [ [link removed] ]
[2]We can’t keep rolling the dice on child care. Tell Congress to stop
playing games and robustly fund child care in the final reconciliation
package!
The past year and a half of the pandemic revealed that our reliance on the
underpaid and undervalued caregiving work of women, and particularly women
of color, places an unsustainable burden on those women, their families
and the economy overall. Yet even before COVID, working people who most
needed access to these vital supports were least likely to have it. [ [link removed] ]
The effect on the future generation of workers and our economy when
families miss out on the good care options they need cannot be
understated. The lack of affordable, high-quality child care costs about
$57 billion a year in lost productivity, wages, and revenue. [ [link removed] ] This
hinders mothers and caregivers' abilities to support their children and
families, as can be evidenced by the fact that just this past June, while
women accounted for 47.6% of job gains last month, they will still need
more than 9 straight months of job gains at last month’s level to recover
the nearly 3.8 million net jobs they have lost since February 2020. [ [link removed] ]
Investing in child care is a critical step toward gender parity,
investments in high-quality, affordable child care could boost women’s
lifetime earnings by $130 billion! [ [link removed] ]
[3]Leave the games to the kids, tell Congress we need child care NOW!
We need YOU to help us make the game-winning spin on child care this
week. To take further action after signing this action, Text “childcare”
to 747464 to tell Congress to invest in child care now!
Our nation can choose to provide quality child care and ensure all our
families are able to thrive. We need to create a child care system that
meets the needs of children, families, communities and child care
providers. Please take action and also forward this email and post the
action link on your social media. Now is the time.
Together, we can make a difference. Join us in raising our voices for
childcare!
- Nadia, Nina, Kristin, Donna, and the whole MomsRising.org/MamásConPoder
Team
References:
[1] [4]Investing in Infant and Toddler Child Care to Strengthen Working
Families
[2] [5]Undervalued: A Brief History of Women’s Care Work and Child Care
Policy in the United States
[3] [6]Striking an infrastructure deal without investing in child and
elder care is a huge mistake
[4] [ [link removed] ]Want to Grow the Economy? Fix the Child Care Crisis.
[5] [ [link removed] ]97% of Women Who Returned to the Labor Force in June Are Unemployed
and Looking for Work
[6] [ [link removed] ]Access to affordable child care impacts women’s lifetime economic
security
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