EDITORIAL: Child care helps babysit the economy

Jul. 29--As the coronavirus pandemic continues, there is plenty of debate about opening schools and opening businesses and opening the economy. There are all these questions about getting the millions of people who have been laid off or furloughed back to collecting a paycheck instead of an unemployment check.

There has to be social distancing. There have to be barriers. There have to be protocols and protection and procedures in place to keep employees, clients and the public safe.

But while schools are seen as a critical part of this, something else is often overlooked.

What about child care?

Parents of toddlers and preschoolers can't simply head back to the office or the classroom when a decision to reopen is made. Who will watch the kids?

They need to have adequate supervision for kids who aren't in school yet. They need someone to be in charge before school or after. If schools are conducting classes remotely, they need someone there during the day because a second grader isn't going to sit quietly at the kitchen table learning about fractions all alone.

And maybe that problem is a good thing. It might mean child care finally gets attention for the important link it is in the chain of our economy.

Even before the pandemic, the Keystone Economic Development and Workforce Command pointed to adequate child care as one of the top two barriers to employment. Parents have trouble finding it, and when they do, they can have trouble affording. Some people spend more on child care than they do on rent or mortgage payments, which is impressive given the nation is facing a rent and mortgage crisis right now.

It is in the best interest of Pennsylvania and the United States to prioritize good, qualified child care and find a way to make it affordable for the people who have to go back to work if the economic gears are going to start turning again.

Maybe that will mean subsidies like the income-based Child Care Works. It could be through educational programs. It might even be employer driven. There are lots of possibilities, and the solutions won't be one-size-fits-all.

But the important thing is to have child care acknowledged as the critical cog in the economic machine that it is, and to make sure it isn't neglected in discussions about getting that machine rolling again.

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