For all the twists and turns of the 2024 election cycle, there’s one development that has been years in the making: Child care is now at the top of the agenda.
From the debate stage to the campaign trail, our national political conversation is aligning with millions of kitchen table conversations throughout the country. Voters expect their leaders to prioritize care work. And it’s no wonder why.
There is no labor more vital to our wellbeing—or to our economy—than that of a caregiver. Whether offered by a parent, a sibling, a teacher, a home-care provider, or an early educator, care work makes America run.
Little kids prepare to leave a park with their daycare class in a portable crib on a warm morning outside the IMF headquarters in Washington, DC, on April 12, 2023.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
And yet, our care system is staggeringly underfunded. This threatens our economic stability, frays our mental health, and exacerbates inequality. Without major federal action, the care system will continue to buckle: driving caregivers to other careers and leaving families with ever fewer options.
That’s why House Democrats and SEIU members have been mobilizing across the nation for care. For years, we’ve been fighting to shine a light on this crisis—and now, we’re offering the American people a path forward.
We are calling for transformative investments in care—a reimagining of the way our economy and our government serve working families. We are bringing people together to envision a care system that guarantees affordability for every family, availability in every neighborhood, and fair wages and the opportunity to join a union for every caregiver.
And as the American people confront a heated election cycle, we’re making clear how much is at stake. This isn’t about two different approaches to fixing child care. It’s about moving forward or falling back.
Voters agree that our care system can’t go on as it is.
But just last month, the House Republican majority allowed $15 billion in federal child care funding to expire. Their Project 2025 manifesto explicitly calls for the total elimination of Head Start—a wildly cruel move that would kick 800,000 kids out of their classrooms and send their families into financial turmoil.
Sen. JD Vance‘s suggestion? Ask grandma to watch the kids—as if family members aren’t already contributing everything they can.
That’s what they have to offer: Ignoring the needs of families and the impossible choices they’re forced to confront when child care is out of reach. When it comes to addressing the needs of the child care providers who go above and beyond every day…forget it.
That kind of indifference is nothing new. We’ve been on the frontlines of this crisis for a long time. Whether organizing care workers or scraping to afford care, we have both seen what happens when the care economy is ignored by those in power.
But we don’t have to go back. Child care doesn’t have to send families into debt. Parenthood doesn’t have to be a financial puzzle. Care work doesn’t have to come with high turnover, low wages, disrespect, and the lack of a true voice on the job.
Not if we choose to do something about it in the weeks ahead.
Child care is part of our economic infrastructure—just as much as our roads and bridges. Without it, parents can’t work, kids can’t learn, and businesses can’t grow. With it, we can build a stronger, more prosperous, and more just country that is truly worthy of our children.
Katherine Clark is the Democratic Whip in the U.S. House of Representatives. She proudly represents Massachusetts’ 5th Congressional District and is the 2nd highest-ranking Democrat in House leadership.
SEIU President April Verrett is a fighter for working people and a visionary leader at the forefront of building a modern-day labor movement that is anti-racist at its core.
The views expressed in this article are the writers’ own.
