By now, the fact that childcare is in crisis is not new. But as the weeks creep by it is crystallizing as one of the signal problems of the pandemic lockdowns. Without childcare, which includes open K-12 schools, parents, child care workers, day care providers, and a host of others have been deeply affected. Parents who work from home, especially mothers, have two jobs now. Essential workers don’t have even that luxury and have the increased worry of exposing their children or family members to coronavirus. Daycare providers, domestic and childcare workers have watched their industry, one which relies heavily on low-wage black and brown labor, crater. This is the domino that affects nearly every other aspect of a potential recovery (if the US was even in a position to think about economic recovery as cases continue to surge all over). The long and short is the outlook is grim.
Now, as Congress prepares to reconvene and wrangle over a new set of stimulus payments, a boost to the childcare industry is front and center. Both the GOP and Democrats have plans for a path forward for childcare and school reopening, but they clash on many fundamentals. The GOP plan, called Back to Work Child Care Grants Act would, as the name suggests, rely on federal grants administered by the Department of Health and Human Services which would identify “qualified child care providers” and disburse funds based on need, according to Law360.
However, Democratic leadership, while acknowledging that there is widespread consensus on the importance of righting the childcare ship, argued that the GOP plan misses the boat. The Democrats’ own plan, Child Care Is Essential Act, seeks to provide $50 billion to the childcare industry, also mainly disbursed through grants by the DHHS.
In a Tuesday op-ed in the New York Times, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren singled childcare out as one of the key aspects of any healthy recovery. Warren has previously argued for a universal childcare policy, but for the time being, the best we can hope for is a stop-gap bailout of the largely privatized childcare industry, rather than a radical reform of a system that has be woefully inadequate for decades as traditional forms of mutual aid, child care and education have been eroded or privatized.
It is clear that without significant action, the repercussions of lack of childcare will be felt in the workplace, as parents - especially mothers - continue to try and care for their children while maintaining full-time work, without structural help or protections for either role.
