“A historic amount of funding is making its way to child care centers across the country thanks to the American Rescue Plan.”

“Now that we’ve pumped money into the child care industry to help prevent its collapse, what comes next?

“For Assistant Speaker Katherine Clark (D-MA), Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), what comes next is the Child Care is Infrastructure Act, a bill they recently reintroduced. This bill marks a turning point when we move beyond months of focusing on relief and short-term damage control, and start recognizing the importance of child care as a fundamental part of our long-term economic recovery.

“The legislation doesn’t solve all the problems that plague the U.S. child care sector, but it takes us in the right direction. This bill’s title alone promotes an important framing of child care that is important for lawmakers and the general public to understand as our focus shifts from relief to recovery: child care is infrastructure. For the millions of women who have lost their jobs in the pandemic, having access to affordable child care — just like having access to roads to get to work — will be a determining factor for whether they are able to hold a job or not.”

— “Child Care Is A Public Good. Our Government Should Start Treating It That Way,” by Rebecca Rewald, Cognoscenti, WBUR, March 24, 2021