Emergency child care funds from the pandemic will expire this month. If nothing is done, centers could shut down and thousands of kids could be left without care.
Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-San Diego, is helping push the Childcare Stabilization Act, legislation that would provide more child care funding at the federal level.
Why it matters
More than $24 billion in federal emergency funding helped keep the child care industry from collapsing during the pandemic.
If those funds run out, it could push providers, parents and more than 3 million kids toward a child care cliff. Jacobs said around 80,000 kids and 13,000 programs in California would be impacted.
By the numbers
The Childcare Stabilization Act would fund child care stabilization grants at $16 billion every year for the next five years.
For every dollar invested into the child care system, the federal government saves $6 in other areas, Jacobs said.
Closer look
Jacobs said in San Diego and across the country, it's already incredibly hard to find and afford child care.
"If we don't extend this funding, it's going to get even more difficult," she said.
Jacobs is part of a group of Democratic lawmakers in the Senate and Congress pushing the bill.
"It actually ends up working out really well for the government, because you actually end up getting more taxes from increased labor force participation from higher earnings, from the kids who have high quality, early education throughout their lifetime, less cost in other areas like health care and criminal justice," she said.
Anna Chiles, the founder of the nonprofit Included San Diego that works to expand early childhood education, especially for children with disabilities, said child care providers need better pay.
"We live in a child care desert where the cost of living continues to skyrocket. So the future feels bleak to me," she said. "As a society, we have decided that folks that care for and work with children across the board deserve less than the rest of us. It's the most problematic, sneaky, deeply held belief we have, and we need a culture shift."
