As the incoming Trump administration readies itself for office, early childhood advocates must press any advantage to keep childcare and early learning a top priority.
The votes are in, and former President Donald Trump will once again take the White House in January, ushering in an uncertain future for millions of Americans—among them, parents of young children, increasingly concerned about how they will make ends meet and what opportunities their children will have.
In many ways, this election called into question the very nature of opportunity itself: What do we mean by it, and to whom does it apply?
As it stands, half of all families live in childcare deserts with either inadequate or nonexistent licensed childcare to rely on for support. With the exception of Head Start, the childcare sector lacks a public alternative to the patchwork of programs that operate out of churches, centers and residential homes. Given decades of drastic underinvestment, those providers run on shoe-string budgets, struggling to adequately compensate their educators even while parents pay double-digit shares of their household income on care.
Childcare expenses mount so high that they push an estimated 134,000 families into poverty every year. With federal pandemic-era funds now expired, the childcare sector faces even deeper resource constraints, suppressed wages for educators, higher costs for families, and shrinking choices for care. Within this landscape, many parents are forced to make difficult decisions about their children’s care or their own jobs, not because it’s what they think is best for their family, but because they lack any other options.
Some families choose to have a parent stay home with their child or ask a relative or neighbor to provide care based upon personal preference, social or religious beliefs, or sometimes their child’s health needs—and those families deserve support.
Within this landscape, many parents are forced to make difficult decisions about their children’s care or their own jobs, not because it’s what they think is best for their family, but because they lack any other options.
An expanded, refundable child tax credit would help address some of the high costs associated with raising a child, but it is neither sufficient to cover the cost of care, nor is it directed to childcare providers or educators to sufficiently expand services. Countless parents across America seek an external, formalized, high-quality childcare system, and access to that system remains, more often than not, unrealized.
Barriers to access and opportunity generate profound and lasting impacts on future generations. Childcare and early learning programs support better economic growth—making it possible for parents to go to work, school or job training; boosting productivity; and supporting the early education profession. At the same time, they put young children on a path toward school readiness by establishing concrete knowledge like early literacy and math, developing self-regulation and socioemotional skills, and encouraging a foundational curiosity for learning that sets the stage for opportunities throughout school and life.
Every family should have access to the type of childcare that works best for them. And early educators should have the opportunity to pursue a career they are passionate about, while also being compensated at levels that reflect the value of their work. Creating an inclusive, comprehensive mixed-delivery system with a range of high-quality care options is the best way for our nation’s leaders to promote opportunity. This means committing to strong investments—for which advocates have long fought—in early educators’ compensation, in building out supply and in lowering costs for parents.
As the incoming Trump administration readies itself for office, early childhood advocates must press any advantage to keep childcare and early learning a top priority. With this election, Americans have recharged questions about whether we, as a nation, are committed to fostering environments where families can thrive. The ballots we cast represented a referendum on whether families have the right to opportunity, but the work we do from here will determine whether we care enough to secure those rights for the next generation.
