These 10 Graphics Show Just How Broken America’s Child-Care System Is
Too few spots at centers, underpaid workers, and no real government assistance in sight with the end of pandemic aid.
Day care run by Henry Street Settlement on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Photographer: David Grossman/Alamy Stock Photo
America’s child-care infrastructure is in tatters. The US went into the pandemic with known deficits: It’s long ranked near the bottom of the list among industrialized countries in terms of the amount of government resources it devotes to children that aren’t yet of school age. In a Unicef analysis of national child-care policies in 41 advanced economies, only Slovakia garnered a worse score.
The Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan Act papered over some of these gaps, providing $24 billion to help child-care centers keep their doors open during the Covid-19 emergency, but the federal aid ran out at the end of September. Some 3.2 million children are at risk of losing their spots in care as a result, as centers are forced to cut staffing, reduce hours or shut their doors, according to the Century Foundation, which has modeled the effects of the fiscal cliff. “We ended up with this bridge to nowhere,” says Julie Kashen, the foundation’s director for women’s economic justice.