Recap: What the Presidential Candidates Should be Saying About Child Care and Early Learning

Clare McCann
This post originally appeared on Early Ed Watch.

There has been some debate throughout the presidential election of education, including early childhood education. But in spite of its implications for working families and social mobility, quality, affordable child care has rarely been noted by either of the candidates.

At a New America event on September 27, David Gray, director of the New America Workforce and Family Program, and Lisa Guernsey, director of the Early Education Initiative, joined other child care experts for an event entitled “Speaking Up: What the Presidential Candidates Should be Saying about Child Care and Early Learning.”

Grace Reef, chief of policy and evaluation for ChildCare Aware® of America, brought the facts on child care: 11 million kids across the country are in child care – and stressed that child care should be seen as an early learning program. Helen Blank of the National Women’s Law Center described the history of the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) as an integral participant in drafting the language of the law in the late 1980s and 1990s.Twenty five years ago, she said, most low-income women who were expected to work didn’t earn enough in those jobs to afford child care. That’s still true today.

Rob Dugger, chairman of the Invest in Kids Working Group and the ReadyNation Advisory Board, focused on several moments in history in which disenfranchised people rose up to make their voices heard.  He argued it was time to “become more militant” in standing up on behalf of investments in the next generation – in the “child economy” and the development of human capital.

Guernsey tied child care to educational reform policies in the K-12 world, saying school reforms won’t be as successful as reformers think without greater investment in early learning.  If provided the resources to improve the workforce, child care programs can offer those high-quality learning experiences for young children, she said. Meanwhile, as parents find affordable child care solutions that allow them to work outside the home, it represents an opportunity for middle- and low-income Americans to improve their chances for job growth.

Child care is a key issue for working families, and it’s on the minds of most parents. With almost a month to go in this year’s presidential campaign, there’s more than enough time for President Obama and Governor Romney to pivot to child care and early learning. Early Ed Watch has been tracking the candidates’ stances on these issues and will be reporting on more in the coming weeks.

To view C-SPAN coverage of the New America Foundation event, click here.