When the MomsRising MOMbassador team invited me to attend a Senate hearing on the Hill about child care fund freezes, I thought to myself, what do I as a stay at home mom have to add to this discussion?  What can I learn from the experience and how can I move public policy further for families?

I reflected on the factors which influenced me to pause my own career as an early interventionist. I had an extremely preterm, medically fragile baby who required A LOT of medical care, doctors’ appointments, and early intervention therapy appointments. As he grew, thrived, and life began returning to normal, my family and I considered whether I would return to work, only to discover that paying for quality programming was like paying a second monthly mortgage! While we considered these issues, COVID hit, an elder family member had a stroke, and I had our third child. Firmly planted in the sandwich generation, with a baby in my sling, two small children running around my legs, and an adult whose meds I managed, I did not re-enter the workforce. Affordability of child care and eldercare played a WEIGHTY role in that decision making. I found that I myself had a child care story after all!

My next thought was if our leaders were discussing child care, real life children and families SHOULD be present for that conversation. While I myself do not have children enrolled in child care, I was horrified by the headlines that Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG) funding was frozen in CA, CO, IL, and MN, and NY due a right-wing influencer’s unsubstantiated fraud allegations. Rather than fanning the flames of inflammatory racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric, the discussion should be centered on what actual families, small children, and hardworking early child care workers need. Our Senators should know that…

• The lack of affordable, high quality child care costs society about $57 billion per year in lost productivity, wages, and revenue.

• Child care is an economic issue.

  • To be able to go to work, families need to be able to access affordable, high quality child care. 2.7 million Americans report making job changes due to child care issues, with women disproportionately making career sacrifices and suffering pay cuts.
  • Kids need high early learning opportunities to thrive. Children who attend quality child care are 25% more likely to graduate high school, 4x more likely to complete a bachelor’s degree or higher, and earn up to 25% more in wages as an adult.
  • Child care workers, many of whom are women and moms, need living wages to stay in their profession. One out of 7 educators live in poverty, despite being essential workers.   
  • Businesses need their employees to have access to child care so they don’t have open positions that create supply chain problems in their ability to run their business.

• Investments in high quality, affordable child care breaks the cycle of multi-generational poverty. For every dollar invested, society yields a $6.30 return in improved health, education, and employment outcomes and saves in what would have been remediation costs.

Armed with my research, my diaper bag, and fellow moms, we entered the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee’s hearing titled “Restoring Integrity: Preventing Fraud in Child Care Assistance Programs,” my youngest child little voice echoing as she asked for an erasable marker maze busy book. Looking around the room, I saw Congressional leaders and a panel of three experts before us, and child care workers, parents, and advocates around us. The hearing got off to a stern start, with Senator Bill Cassidy intoning, “If my people in LA have one request, it is if they are sending hard earned dollars to Washington, that it be spent responsibly, that those who deserve those dollars get those dollars, but that those who are stealing those dollars be prosecuted.”

Expert witnesses, such as Henry Wilde, Co-Founder and CEO, Acelero, Inc., pushed back, testifying that “child care fraud is extremely rare” and that “publicly funded programs like CCDBG and Head Start are not just work supports for families; 50 years of research have demonstrated that high quality early childhood education can change the trajectory of low-income children’s lives and close the income-based achievement gap before they enter Kindergarten.” When asked about the immediate impacts of a child care funding freeze, Liz Denson, President and CEO, Early Connections Learning Centers stated “a statewide, immediate freeze of these funds would absolutely be catastrophic. Child care is a critical piece of economic infrastructure, and without it, state economies would crumble.” 

As the hearing went on (and as my daughter stood on my legs, counting the lantern fixtures in the room), the tone softened and leaders across the aisle highlighted the importance of federal funding for child care programs. I was encouraged to hear Senator John Hickenlooper of Colorado-(D) speak on the importance of brain development in the first five years of a child’s life, Senator Jon Husted of Ohio-(R) acknowledge the fear families feel at their first child care drop-off, and Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia-(D) expound on the parallels between the cost of child care and college tuition. 

Senator Patty Murray of Washington-(D) and Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire-(D) got to the heart of the matter: America faces a child care affordability crisis and to solve that crisis, serious discussions regarding infrastructure investments and accountability frameworks need to occur. They emphasized that discussions cannot be derailed by unsubstantiated allegations, and oversight that is well planned and based in evidence safeguard tax dollars when fraud does occur.  The meeting concluded with some discussion of some frameworks to reduce fraud when it does, rarely, occur.  And while it ended on a reconciliatory note, the hearing did not change what many families and business owners face at this present moment—indiscriminate child care funding freezes negatively impact children’s learning, parents ability to work, and businesses ability to operate!

The MomsRising MOMbassador team took to the Senate Halls, knocking on doors, with my daughter hopping, skipping, and jumping along the way. We shared MomsRising’s Child Care storybook, which is full of constituent child care stories, since families are not always able to visit D.C. and share their stories with their Congressional leaders directly. We unequivocally told each person we met that it was time to unfreeze the child care funding cuts for children, families, and small businesses across the nation. There is much work to be done and we need leaders who are willing to roll up their sleeves, push for serious federal investment, and take strides alongside us!

Here’s How to Take action:

• Tell Congress to demand HHS restore and protect child care funding now!  https://action.momsrising.org/sign/tell-congress-demand-hhs-restore-protect-child-care-funding-now/

• Share your child care story, https://action.momsrising.org/survey/share_your_experience?, https://momsrising.soapboxx.us/question/ChildCareStory

• Live in the DMV?  Join the MOMBassdors Team and help share constituent stories! https://action.momsrising.org/sign/mombassadors/