Why Quality, Affordable Childcare for All is a Right, Not a Privilege

On Monday, May 11, Community Change Action is launching a new national campaign for universal childcare as part of their fifth annual Day Without Child Care protest. With 74 events across 28 states planned, the organization hopes to shine a spotlight on the importance of making quality childcare options available for working families and offering thriving wages for childcare providers.

Tiffie Jackson, a licensed childcare provider in St. Louis, MO, a member of WEPOWER, and a participant in the Day Without Child Care event, recently shared her thoughts exclusively with The Root about the role Black women have played in the childcare industry and the importance of making sure they maintain a living wage while offering quality care for all families.

I am joining thousands of childcare providers and parents nationwide in a strike to demand what families and caregivers have needed for far too long: a universal childcare system that works for everyone. Childcare costs are crushing families, while providers are barely surviving. It shouldn’t be this hard to care for our families.

For generations, Black women have been the backbone of this system – caring for children, supporting working families, keeping our economy running, and holding together an infrastructure that has always been fragile. Care is deeply undervalued because it has historically been done by Black women, often to our own disadvantage. We do it anyway, because it’s what our communities need. But the system cannot take us for granted anymore, and we’re tired of our labor being exploited.

I never planned to be a childcare provider. A friend who owned a center asked me to help her open a second location, and because I had some home-based care experience, I said yes. I took college courses and earned the necessary credentials, and now I have my own licensed space with 17 children enrolled. Every day, I nurture, teach and shape lessons that they will carry for the rest of their lives.

But, despite the importance of this work, I pay myself $12 an hour, and my staff slightly more, so I can keep them. It’s not enough for any of us to survive. I don’t have a retirement plan or vacation days, like most workers who contribute so much. When lawmakers let $24 billion in pandemic-era stabilization funds expire, the little cushion I had saved evaporated with it.

Only one of the families in my care pays out of pocket; everyone else relies on assistance. I’ve had parents pull their kids out of my center because they can’t afford it anymore. Some families pay up to 30% of their income on childcare; for others, the rising costs push a parent–usually the mom–out of the workforce altogether. I know that struggle personally. At one point, I didn’t qualify for assistance and had to rely on my oldest daughter to care for her younger siblings while I worked. No family should have to make those choices.

Politicians’ failure to invest in our childcare system impacts all of us. The childcare crisis costs our economy $172 billion every year. One report showed that more accessible childcare would increase women’s lifetime income by $130 billion collectively. Meanwhile, billionaire wealth hit a record high last year, and Republicans continue to push through anti-family policies that cut programs we need–childcare, Medicaid and SNAP. They scapegoat Black and immigrant care providers to justify the cuts, even though we’re the ones keeping the system afloat. When we’re forced out of the workforce, the consequences ripple through the economy.

I can’t lie. I am scared. My friends are closing their centers. People depend on me–my staff, the kids, their families. If my center closes permanently, where do they go?

A Day Without Child Care is our day of action to demand a universal childcare system where every child is guaranteed a seat, providers earn thriving wages and parents don’t have to shell out more than they can afford–a true system built on racial and gender equity.

Universal childcare is not only possible, but it’s also inevitable. It’s common sense. And when we win it, life will be better for everyone. Black women have held this system together for long enough. It’s time for a system that holds us up, too.

Tiffie Jackson is a licensed childcare provider in St. Louis, MO, a member of WEPOWER, and a participant in Community Change Action’s Fifth Annual Day Without Child Care.