The work of caring for our children is some of the most important work in our lives. Affordable, quality child care makes it possible for parents to go out and do what we do every day, knowing that the most precious people in our lives are in good hands. Yet, it’s some of the most invisible and undervalued work. Child care providers have been hit hard by COVID, following decades of underinvestment and disregard for their essential role in nurturing our youngest children and fueling our economy. And parents with young kids are struggling. The costs of essentials like rent and child care have skyrocketed over the last decades. We have reached our tipping point.
We are calling for a caring economy that values early education and care providers. We believe child care providers should have a powerful voice in the system that impacts them, that includes granting rights to providers to choose to have a union. And we need a child care infrastructure that makes child care affordable and accessible for all families. .
We demand public investments for:
1) Living wages for child care providers
2) An equitable child care system built on racial justice
3) Affordable child care for all families
This requires: