Quality and Affordable Childcare Cannot Wait
We are existing in a moment in time in which much of the public is uncovering, dissecting, and demanding change to the wild and historic wrongness of our current systems and culture. Our cities are burning in response to police brutality and systemic oppression, while we are in the middle of a fight against a global pandemic that has disproportionately impacted Black Americans. In the midst of all of this, I lay awake at night thinking about our children. Not just my children, but the children in my neighborhood, my community, and my country.
I have had white friends express their concern about our children being raised in this moment and fear that they have somehow lost a part of their childhood. I understand that. And yet, I also feel inspired that my children may be raised in a world that was forced to confront the inequities that created this moment. These are not new challenges. These are exposed challenges - vulnerable, unhidden by hundreds of years of White Supremacy and White Fragility. These are realities that our BIPOC neighbors have confronted for centuries.
My concern isn’t about the rawness of the world right now. My sleepless nights center around transforming systems to support these children to have a future, where regardless of race or zipcode, there are boundless possibilities for our youth, justice for all, and opportunities to thrive. As WEPOWER shared in The Reimagined + Redesigned Early Childhood Education Playbook, “The desire to build a better tomorrow for the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County starts with our babies, our most vulnerable population.”
A child’s early years are the foundation for their future development. Experiences of caregiving and education during these crucial years provide the base for a child’s lifelong learning. There is no denying that limited access to quality and affordable childcare is one of the greatest obstacles during the pandemic and beyond.
Childcare programs are underfunded yet expensive for families, and quality is difficult to measure. These gaps are exploited by COVID-19 reminding the region of the continued urgency for affordable, high-quality early childhood education. For most St. Louisans with young children, getting back to work will be impossible if early childhood education providers do not have the resources, protection, and guidance necessary to safely teach and care for our region’s 0 to 5 year olds.
As our region and country reopens, we must acknowledge that there is no recovery without first addressing the needs of early childhood education. Childcare providers should not have to choose between their livelihood and their lives.
Furthermore, this situation threatens to exacerbate existing racial disparities in childcare access and are even more damaging in terms of high-quality care and education.
Ready by Five, an effort led by providers, parents, and community members offers us solutions for both immediate response and long term support for our early childhood education system. The coalition has called on our region to (1) protect businesses and spur economic development, (2) minimize the health risks to ECE providers and staff, (3) ensure early childhood education facilities do not become nexuses of community transmission. Early childcare education providers, parents, and advocates worked together to develop demands of our local and state leaders to support the essential work of early childhood educators. I encourage you to read the details of the plan, and add your name in support.
On June 3, St. Louis County announced it will create the Childcare Relief Program, setting aside $5.9 million in funds accessible to licensed and licensed-exempt ECE providers in the county. St. Louis City announced it will set aside $1.5 million to support early childhood education. These funds will help address the immediate financial crisis caused by COVID-19, but there is still more to be done to ensure childcare providers have what they need to safely operate and care for children. It also doesn’t guarantee dedicated funding to quality childcare. At Gladiator, we were proud to sign on to the demand letter and we will continue to support Ready by Five as they work toward establishing local, public funds through a November 2020 ballot initiative.
This moment in all our lives has exposed and laid raw the disparities we at Gladiator seek to overcome. We are proud to work alongside local advocates and changemakers in insisting that we must start with our babies.