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Child Care Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on our already fragile child care system. Providers have closed, others are struggling, and everyone it seems is realizing that without child care, America can’t get back to work. (Yes, child care is infrastructure.) Early Learning Nation is covering the field with rigor and nuance from a historical perspective (Universal Child Care was a great success during WWII), to the latest legislative proposals and to ways that we must transform the way we treat our undervalued and largely unseen child care workforce.

Innovations in Child Care: Meeting Parents’ Diverse Needs and Preferences

Part 2 of a 5-Part Series

Rebecca Gale·June 30, 2022·8 min read

Our country is in a child care crisis, exacerbated by the pandemic, which has shown how difficult it is for...

New York City’s 60-year-old Fight for Universal Child Care

Today’s Activists Are Part of A Long, Historic Struggle. Will They Succeed?

Kendra Hurley·June 29, 2022·8 min read

As a federal plan to make child care affordable languishes in Congress, New York City has joined the growing number...

Thriving Providers Project: First of Its Kind Effort Uses Guaranteed Income to Address Compensation of Early Childhood Education Workforce

Alice Bradley·June 28, 2022·6 min read

Home-based child care providers may soon be getting some much-needed financial assistance. The Thriving Providers Project (TPP), officially launching in...

Economists Find Investing in Child Care Will Dramatically Reduce Costs, Increase Mother’s Employment and Increase Quality Care

Bryce Covert·June 24, 2022·6 min read

After decades of disinvestment in child care that went largely unnoticed, the pandemic knocked the fragile system even more off...

Innovations in Child Care Investment: Building the Case for Public and Private Funds

Part 1 of a 5-Part Series Explores Innovations in Child Care

Rebecca Gale·June 15, 2022·7 min read

Our country is in a child care crisis, exacerbated by the pandemic, which has shown how difficult it is for...

Wyoming’s Long Main Street: Connection and Cohesion in the Cowboy State

Mark Swartz·March 25, 2022·5 min read

The Great Resignation is happening across the country, but it’s hitting some states harder than others. A recent WalletHub report...

Opinion: Raising Child Care Ratios is a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Idea

Elliot Haspel·March 15, 2022·3 min read

One of “Aesop’s Fables” goes like this: “A group of pigeons, terrified by the appearance of a Kite, called upon...

Bringing Unlicensed Care out of the Shadows

Mark Swartz·January 13, 2022·3 min read

Experts and officials often talk about “child care deserts” to describe regions without enough formal child care, but Maki Park...

Great Beginnings in the Great Plains: Communities for Kids Builds Nebraska’s Child Care Infrastructure, Cultivates All Community Stakeholders

Mark Swartz·January 11, 2022·3 min read

Marti Beard is a fifth-generation rancher in addition to being vice president of Early Childhood Programs of Nebraska Children and...

Build Back Better Helps, Not Hurts, Faith-Based Child Care

Critics are Overselling the Changes While Religious Programs Fight for Their Lives

Elliot Haspel·December 2, 2021·7 min read

While the investments in early care and education appear broadly safe, one unresolved design question concerns what should be required of child care programs operated by faith communities.