“Children, their parents, and the economies in which they operate are all better off when societies provide easily accessible, high-quality child care and early education options. ”
The U.S. Department of the Treasury released a report evaluating the “crucial and underfunded” child care sector and explaining why “relying on private money to provide child care is bound to come up short.” The report details how: (1) liquidity constraints (most parents have children early in their careers when wages and net wealth are low, and unlike college loans, there are no loans available for child care), (2) positive spillover effects (the benefits of high-quality early care and education extend beyond the parents paying for the care, but society typically pay for child care); structural issues (child care is labor intensive, and typically provided by women whose services historically are undervalued and underpaid, and child care centers operate on very thin margins). In an industry where 95% of the workers are women and over one third are people of color, the historical undervaluation of work performed by these groups combined with the high labor costs lead to low wages and high turnover in the early childhood workforce.