Next Steps for a Childcare System in Crisis

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2021

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

California has almost 3 million children 5 years old and under. Hundreds of thousands of these kids lack affordable childcare because of backlogs in the state’s subsidized childcare program. The pandemic --which led to the closure of 8,500 childcare facilities--only worsened the bottleneck. And lack of childcare means that in many households one--or both parents--won’t be able to work. In this hour, we examine the long term access and affordability problems in early childhood care and how it affects the state’s persistent achievement gap. We’ll also hear about a state plan to phase in universal transitional kindergarten. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for KQIWID podcasts comes from Rancho LaPuerta, a wellness resort 45 minutes from San Diego.
0:07.2	Summer packages of three, four, or seven nights include hiking, mindfulness, and culinary adventures with farm-fresh ingredients.
0:15.0	Rancho LePuerta.com.
0:16.9	Support for Forum comes from Broadway S.F. presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a true story.
0:24.4	From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of Leo and Lucille Frank,
0:30.8	a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia.
0:34.8	When Leo is accused of an unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable
0:40.2	test of faith, humanity, justice, and devotion. The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade
0:47.2	plays the Orpheum Theater for three weeks only, May 20th through June 8th. Tickets on sale now
0:54.0	at Broadwaysf.com.
0:57.7	From KQED Public Radio in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:15.3	Let's be real. America's child care system is broken, especially here in the Bay Area.
1:20.2	It's expensive for families, and yet care workers can barely afford to live.
1:24.2	While other countries offer a public option for child care, the same has not been true in the U.S.
1:29.0	During the pandemic, when the child care functions of school disappeared overnight, it became
1:33.7	clear that the new burdens were forcing women out of the workforce contributing to a serious labor
1:38.3	shortage. As historian, Eileen Boris puts it, care is not only work, but the work that makes other work possible.
1:46.1	And California has now resolved to make an unprecedented investment in preschool.
1:50.7	We talk childcare and mothers in the workforce with an expert panel on you.
1:53.9	That's all next on Forum after this news.
1:59.6	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
2:02.4	California has almost 3 million children five years old and under, including one of mine.
	...

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