Introduction

In early 2022, after the demise of the federal Build Back Better legislation that would have offered significant funding for a universal child care system, the Better Life Lab decided to build on our extensive research on child care innovations. We found that so many interesting things were happening in child care to address the sector’s shortcomings, and there were bright spots across the country: from local leaders taking action and prioritizing care, to organizations working to identify creative ways to secure funding and improve compensation, to funds from the American Rescue Plan’s child care dollars uplifting the industry in ways that could have a long-term, sustainable impact. Seeking to build on and expand that seminal work, we put out a call to journalists and writers across the country offering reporting grants for pieces that highlight innovations within the child care field. Specifically, we were interested in uncovering examples of ways in which local governments, organizations, movements, and local stakeholders are taking action to improve our broken, patchwork child care system to increase families’ access to affordable, quality care and improve wages, benefits, and working conditions for the care workforce. We were interested in exploring lessons that could be learned and potentially scaled—from nontraditional care systems, family, community, and neighborhood efforts, to improvements in day-to-day care activities to local and state governmental changes in funding, subsidies, regulations, and benefit delivery.

In the Better Life Lab’s years of research, reporting, and countless interviews surrounding the need for more stability, quality, affordability, and accessibility within the child care industry, we have found that creating a truly equitable, universal child care system will require robust public investment. We argue that it’s time to recognize that, like education, the free market alone can’t create that system: Child care infrastructure needs to be seen as a public good, worthy of public investment because it will benefit us all.

The goal of highlighting such innovations in child care is threefold. By widening our lens and focusing on solutions, we can do the following:

1. Bring awareness to creative, potential solutions that could scale and apply to a broader population, jurisdiction, or in multiple child care settings.
2. Highlight that some approaches—while helpful—still fall short of the robust federal investment required for a truly equitable, high-quality, universal child care system.
3. Keep the spotlight on the care crisis, but, instead of disempowering readers and leaving them feeling hopeless, showcase what’s possible, offer bright spots, inspire hope, energize readers, and serve as a call to urgent action.

Creating a steady stream of high-quality, solutions-focused journalism and storytelling is key to keeping the care crisis top of mind and in the national conversation while painting a vision of what a universal child care system could look like, what it will take to get there, the far-reaching consequences if we don’t, and the enormous benefits to everyone when we do. Narrative change is central to the Better Life Lab’s mission; projects like this give readers the chance to see what solutions could look like and keep the pressure on policymakers, business leaders, and others in power to find real and lasting solutions that will benefit everyone.