OPINION: Child care is key to Alaska’s COVID-19 recovery and economic growth

Recently, we heard Gov. Mike Dunleavy say our state is resilient, President Joe Biden call our nation strong, and Bill Popp of the Anchorage Economic Development Corp. project job growth and recovery. All talked about moving from COVID-19 response to recovery and that brings us hope and opportunity. Key to realizing full recovery is to ensure access to affordable, quality child care for all Alaskans.

Even before the pandemic, child care was a struggle for the 50,000 Alaskan families that rely on it every day. For more than 35 years, Thread, Alaska’s Child Care Resource and Referral, or CCRR, Network, has seen families struggle daily as they try to find and afford quality child care for their youngest children.

Across Alaska, quality child care is often unavailable or out of reach financially. While President Biden mentioned the surging cost of child care in his recent address, Alaskans know firsthand the cost can be more than college tuition. Despite the high costs of child care, providers are unable to pay early educators a living wage. It is a business model with high operating costs, low margins and an underpaid workforce doing the important work of supporting parents with the care and education of their young children. It is a system pushed to the breaking point during the pandemic.

Yet child care is key to achieving full economic recovery and growth.

As the economy shows signs of recovery, Alaska’s child care system remains on the verge of collapse. Thread estimates the early education workforce is down 20%. Those that remain in the field are exhausted, underpaid and still actively mitigating the impact of COVID in their programs.

Now is the time to come together to address child care for our families, young children, early educators — and for the quality of life in our great state.

The first step to change requires bold investments at the federal level followed by state and local investment. Congress must support policies to foster healthy development of children, ensuring that regardless of economic status, race, ZIP code, language or ability, all children have a strong foundation. The child care policy proposals contained in the proposed Build Back Better Act would be transformative. This legislation would lower child care costs for nine out of ten families and make it free for many, create and support millions of jobs, including for early educators and parents. It would ensure that the child care programs that have survived the pandemic can finally stabilize and guarantee living wages for their workers.

It feels like the negotiations over the Build Back Better Act have been long, especially to those of us in the child care and early learning field. The latest stall is especially discouraging because access to high-quality, affordable child care is obtainable.

At Thread, we believe that Alaska’s families, children and early educators deserve a system that works. We cannot allow this opportunity to pass us by.

Contact our members of Congress and let your state legislators know you support quality child care to ensure our nation, state and communities can be strong, resilient, have job growth and the full recovery we all hope for. Learn more and take action at threadalaska.org.

Stephanie Berglund is the CEO of Thread, a nonprofit that works to increase access to affordable early child care for Alaska families.

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