A New Deal for America’s Youngest Children and their Families
“From Brexit to the election of Donald Trump to gilets jaunes, the $1 trillion Congress has already approved for Coronavirus relief with more on the way, and the now visible divide between essential workers and those who can work from home, our dependence on maskless gig workers who work without benefits, and racial and geographic disparities in rates of COVID-19, all of the necessary preconditions for widespread social change are present.”
Photo by Sonder Quest on Unsplash
by Joe Waters
Throughout our history, crises have introduced large-scale social change and, as in FDR’s New Deal, our responses to those crises have the potential to reshape society, the economy, the role of government, and the underlying social contract. As Demos Helskini has recently shown, crises invoke social change if they follow periods of social unrest and growing tensions, require a massive amount of resources to tackle the crisis, and make underlying social tensions visible. From Brexit to the election of Donald Trump to gilets jaunes, the $1 trillion Congress has already approved for Coronavirus relief with more on the way, and the now visible divide between essential workers and those who can work from home, our dependence on maskless gig workers who work without benefits, and racial and geographic disparities in rates of COVID-19, all of the necessary preconditions for widespread social change are present.
Among other divides, the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic decline have revealed a gaping hole in America’s infrastructure to support young children and their families, particularly those families who are “essential workers”, cannot stay home to care for their children, and rely on child care programs. Child care is essential for the livelihoods of millions of Americans and it is indispensable for supporting essential workers who are combatting the pandemic.
“ In a system that enjoys a mix of public support and is also very much a part of the service economy, the reason for this isn’t simply the persistent underfunding of child care by the government. Something more complex is at play: our whole framework for supporting the welfare of our children and families has been too patchwork and, just like a ship with too many patched holes in the hull, we are sinking. ”
Yet, according to a survey by NAEYC, 30% of child care programs say they are not able to survive a closure of more than two weeks without significant public investment and support that would allow them to compensate and retain staff, pay rent or mortgages, and cover other fixed costs.
How did we get to a point where we are seriously discussing the permanent loss of 30% of child care programs that are critical to helping us secure our future? No one is talking about one-third of public schools permanently closing, but we are seriously talking about one-third of child care centers permanently closing.
For three decades now we have walked the path of building “early childhood systems.” COVID-19 has made clear just how weak the tea was. Under the leadership of Democrats and Republicans, states from North Carolina to California and many in between, have enacted state quality rating systems for child care, technical assistance for child care providers to help them improve the quality of their care, shared services alliances to gain efficiencies through shared purchasing, and more. A lot of energy and money has been invested into “system building.” However, when a true crisis hits, these systems have proven to be remarkably vulnerable and began collapsing with rapid speed. In a system that enjoys a mix of public support and is also very much a part of the service economy, the reason for this isn’t simply the persistent underfunding of child care by the government. Something more complex is at play: our whole framework for supporting the welfare of our children and families has been too patchwork and, just like a ship with too many patched holes in the hull, we are sinking.
“While it is vitally important for governments to tackle climate change, doing so while ensuring that the children for whom we are securing the future of the planet are well-taken-care-of is of capital importance to our future. Thus, the time is right for a New Deal of truly epic proportions that combines our planetary future, our economic future, and our children’s future.”
The opportunity we have now is to avoid a return to normal and leap into the future. With the conditions for widespread social change met and a wholesale reconsideration of what we want our future to look like, now is the time for daring and tenacious experimentation: a New Deal for America’s Youngest Children and their Families.
This New Deal also cannot be focused just on child care or parental leave or living wages, but must include a truly comprehensive approach to policymaking that has heretofore been lacking for America’s children. My colleague, Sara Peters, and I outlined the principles for this approach in 2018. We suggested that a truly comprehensive policy to support the well-being of our children and families would:
Be firmly rooted and thoroughly informed by the science of early childhood development, resilience, and adversity. A policy would affirm that brains are developed through responsive, reciprocal relationships between children, their caregivers, and their communities. Programming would be evidence-based, where appropriate and possible.
Be interdisciplinary and inclusive of the expansive array of health, education, and social service domains that play critical roles in addressing children’s developmental, emotional, and educational needs.
Provide autonomy and voice to the nonprofit service providers working with and alongside families to provide culturally appropriate, context-specific programming.
Acknowledge the limits and obstacles in current U.S. social policy. It would recognize that the government cannot replace the family, church, synagogue, community and neighborhood organizations, or the other “little platoons of society” that alleviate the distress of children and families and support their healthy functioning and development.
Affirm the importance and value of efforts that support authentic, trusting relationships between children, their caregivers, and others in a child’s life. A policy that in any way compromised the integrity of families, civil society, or the other nodes in the community networks that support children and families would not lead to better outcomes for children, no matter the dollar amount invested.
Based on current trends, Demos Helsinki predicts that government participation in the economy is likely to grow and that this participation will be directed towards transformative objectives, like a Green New Deal. While it is vitally important for governments to tackle climate change, doing so while ensuring that the children for whom we are securing the future of the planet are well-taken-care-of is of capital importance to our future. Thus, the time is right for a New Deal of truly epic proportions that combines our planetary future, our economic future, and our children’s future. COVID-19, the millions of job losses, and the very real possibility of a second Great Depression underscores that any Green New Deal, pandemic-related economic stimulus, and a New Deal for Young Children and Families are not mutually exclusive, but is instead the necessary precondition for securing an authentically human future for the next several generations.
Our colleague Elliot Haspel is making one proposal, the Century Foundation’s Julie Kashen has made another, and there are likely many others, but the urgency is real. We must devote “every ounce of strength and every resource at our command” across government, business, and the social sector to achieving victory over the virus and then securing a future for our children that is worthy of that victory.