“Serv and Return” is an occasional series that spotlights a recent exchange on the Alliance listserv—a widely used channel for the network to provide rapid-response resources and support to one another.
In January, an advocate from Texas put out a request for good resources for educating lawmakers about the child care system:
“We want to educate a slew of leaders in Austin as to how the child care system works—or really doesn’t work. We are looking for some good graphics that explain two things: How the subsidy system works (how few children are served, etc.) and how the economics of child care don’t work.”
Both state and national allies were quick to respond with a variety of tools that help explain the costs of child care businesses, the impact the system has on the economy, and strategies advocates can use to push for a substantial public investment in the system.
Understanding the current state of child care:
- This brief explainer from Early Learning Nation details Covid-19’s impact on the early childhood education industry and the need for public investment to create a universal system: Did covid break child care? Or was it already broken?
- This episode of the NPR podcast Planet Money, breaks down the broken market of child care and the true costs that many families and providers pay: Baby’s First Market Failure
- This infographic from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment explains the early childhood educator shortage and illustrates the need for a public investment so wages an increase: What’s causing the shortage of qualified early care and education teachers? There’s a hole in the bucket.
- This 2022 factsheet from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning & Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health & Human services outlines who is eligible for child care subsidies, who is most likely to receive them, demographic data of eligible children and trends in federal and state subsidy enrollment in 2019: Estimates of Child Care Eligibility & Receipt for Fiscal Year 2019
- First Five Years Fund has developed factsheets for every state that are snapshots of accessibility, affordability, funding streams, quality, enrollment rates, and workforce data of early childhood education in 2023: FFYF’s 2023 State Fact Sheets
Advocacy tips for a larger public investment for industry improvement:
- This infographic co-developed by Center for the Study of Child Care Employment and Child Care Aware of America is a guide on how to advocate for early childhood education improvements from all angles: What can you do to make affordable quality child care and a well-compensated child care workforce a reality?
- This factsheet by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment highlights the broken market of child care, the need for adequate workforce compensation, and the importance of early childhood education. It also provides suggestions on how to improve the industry including what some states are already doing: The Early Educator Workforce Crisis: How Legislators Can Make a Difference for Kids, Families, and Educators
- This infographic from Rhode Island Kids Count was used to model how state governments can meet child care providers in the middle to supplement increased wages for the early childhood education workforce through a wage supplement program (a model that is also used in at least 15 other states): Rhode Island Wage Supplement Program
For additional support for your state child care advocacy, you can reach out to the national allies in theAlliance’s Responsive Support Network. You can also follow the bold, large-scale innovation being pursued by the states in the Child Care NEXT initiative.
