Thread by @annehelen

Childcare is incredibly expensive for parents — and yet the people doing the work are paid very little, w/15-25% below the poverty line nationwide. No one's getting rich.
It's a classic market failure — and has been for decades:

vox.com/the-goods/2236…

You know what we've historically done with other services, like K-12 education, road construction, sewage treatment, public park maintenance, that would also be massive market failures? We decide to fund them publicly!

This would've happened YEARS ago if not for regressive baggage about affordable care "incentivizing" women to work out of the home — and also the enduring expectation that women, and women of color in particular, should essentially do this work for free

Between 43 and 54 percent of early childhood workers are enrolled in some form of government assistance — so it's not like taxes aren't currently propping up the system as is.

Something I hadn't thought about: it's been historically v. difficult to get a lot of energy behind this movement b/c parents grit their teeth, endure the costs for a few years, and then move on — it's not an enduring hardship (for parents, at least; for teachers, it is)

Also, because of when and how the workforce expanded, there's not the same labor power as there is with public school teachers — but that's slowly changing! Child Care Providers United represents 45k workers in CA:

edsource.org/2020/californi…