By: Emily Broughton, Guest Columnist Access article
The state of child care is in a crisis.
If we believe that children are the future, then we need to start funding early childhood education and providing all children with the same opportunities for educational trajectory. The Great Resignation is upon us, as many parents are departing from jobs with a traditional work day due to an inability to reconcile child care costs.
For many, the pandemic highlighted a need for flexible child care schedules or the ability to work from home with small children. This crisis disproportionately affects mothers, who often bear the brunt of child care responsibilities.
These women must now choose between furthering their own careers and providing the best options for their families. It is often unrealistic to find affordable, high-quality child care.
Numerous studies have proven that education begins at birth, so why don’t we fund early childhood education like we fund kindergarten-12th grade? Two children could be born 5 miles apart geographically and receive a drastically different start to their education based on the child care that is available to them. This foundational learning sets the tone for the rest of their educational journey, and drastically changes the trajectory of learning based on socioeconomic factors.