6.7 - Setting Priorities

Top quality childcare is a fundamental requirement for our children’s academic and emotional development. With this in mind, we must do two things:

1. Make quality, accessible, and affordable childcare available to all parents.

2. Give childcare providers training, a living wage, and benefits in order to attract and retain excellent childcare workers.

Parents and children suffer when childcare is substandard. Early childhood education is a huge opportunity for us to advance the success of children, and to support working parents. When children are put into childcare that amounts to a holding tank, those children lose precious opportunities to develop socially and academically, and we all are diminished as a result. Parents and children need more community support for early care and education; it is smart to invest in our future.