Childcare is Essential
Join us on November 3, 2021, from 5:30-6:30 pm for the final installment in our 2021 Gender Equity panel discussion series on zoom.
In addition to the positive long-term impacts that high-quality preschool and child care have on children and the economy, these programs provide important benefits to working parents, especially working mothers. The prohibitively high costs of private child care and the dearth of quality, accessible public providers means that parents are often left to choose between the lesser of two evils: low-quality care or forgoing needed pay to stay at home and care for a child themselves.
“The coronavirus pandemic has devastated the child care sector. At the height of the pandemic, more than half of child care providers – many of them women- and minority-owned small businesses operating on razor-thin margins – closed their doors. We risk losing more, permanently,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita M. Lowey. “The Child Care is Essential Act would stabilize the child care sector and support providers to reopen and operate. It also would provide needed relief to protect child care workers, support working families, and improve the safety of child care facilities.”
“Without child care, parents cannot return to work, business cannot reopen, and young children cannot access invaluable early learning opportunities. But at this moment our child care industry stands on the brink of collapse,” said House Committee on Education and Labor Chairman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03). “The Child Care is Essential Act would help save the child care system, which is critical for working families, our economy, and the healthy development of our nation’s children.”
Join Moderator Leanne Barret from Rhode Island Kids Count and
Panelists:
