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Dear Friend,
One of the best things about the New Year is the feeling of hope, change, and new beginnings.
But for a lot of parents and child care providers, 2022 is feeling A LOT like 2021. With the Omnicron variant in full speed, no child care and working from home with kids is becoming the norm again and the child care staffing shortages are only getting worse.
Thankfully, the hope, change, and new beginnings families are waiting for in 2021 can be just around the corner if Congress acts NOW!
*SIGN ON to tell Congress: Let’s make 2022 the year we finally solve child care!
This week convos with my momma friends have felt like Groundhog’s Day and it’s not even February. Instead of feeling rested, folks are exhausted yet again trying to figure out child care. Just last week, a friend told me that between snow days, positive COVID cases, and continued staff shortages, her toddler was home more days than in child care so far this year.
Similarly, after months of searching and working at home while caring for her toddler, Julie, a MomsRising member in Michigan, and her husband found a childcare program that costs $800 a month, which is now stretching their household budget to its limits. On top of the cost, temporary closures, caused by staffing shortages and outbreaks, often leave Julie’s family and others scrambling to find last-minute care. [1]
And they aren’t the only ones. We KNOW that this last year (years? decade?) has taken a toll on all of us. From women, especially women of color, being forced out of the workplace in record numbers due to a lack of child care, [2] to child care centers struggling to stay open, [3] to our children going through unprecedented social-emotional challenges – and even more so for kids of color and kids with disabilities. [4] [5] This is why this New Year needs fireworks of solutions that can put 2022 on track for our families to thrive.
This is OUR moment. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to let our elected leaders know that we need sufficient funding for child care and early learning so that we can build a nation where every child can thrive, including:
Now THAT is the vision that should be on every elected leader’s 2022 vision board!
*Tell Congress to make this child care vision a reality by passing the Build Back Better Act!
It’s time to push Congress to help us achieve a historic VICTORY by making the biggest investment in child care and early learning in decades a reality.
Thank you for joining our team as we stand together for child care!
- Nina, Lauren, Donna, and the whole MomsRising.org/MamásConPoder Team
References:
[1] The US Is in Urgent Need of Childcare Solutions, MS Magazine, https://action.momsrising.org/go/70974?t=14&akid=17643%2E2840598%2En6AdS9
[2] The Primal Scream, New York Times, https://action.momsrising.org/go/70090?t=16&akid=17643%2E2840598%2En6AdS9
[3] After mass closures, too little support, post-pandemic child care options will be scarce, The Hechinger Report, https://action.momsrising.org/go/70688?t=18&akid=17643%2E2840598%2En6AdS9
[4] A National Agenda for Children’s Mental Health, Child Trends, https://action.momsrising.org/go/70689?t=20&akid=17643%2E2840598%2En6AdS9
[5] Mental health implications of COVID-19 on children with disabilities, NCBI, https://action.momsrising.org/go/70690?t=22&akid=17643%2E2840598%2En6AdS9
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