Hello from Jay’s flooded basement! (Apologies for our less-than-ideal audio.)

This week, our guest is Bryce Covert, a writer who covers the culture and work of child care (and its increasingly dire state) in the U.S. Bryce tells Jay and Tammy [14:50] what she’s been hearing from providers as pandemic-stimulus funding dwindles; [27:55] why care workers haven’t been able to win better pay, even in a strong labor market; and [52:25] how private-sector incentives might help—but don’t go nearly far enough. (A lot of our references are to hetero nuclear families, but the pain is universal!)

In this episode, we ask:

Why do Jay and Bryce have to apply to 94 summer camps to make sure their kids aren’t marooned?

What would an ideal child care system look like? At what age would public care and schooling begin?

What can we learn from previous U.S. policy and experiments elsewhere?

Why does an adequate child care system feel politically impossible?

For more, see Bryce’s writing…

In The Nation:

The Childcare Crisis Is Getting Worse

Child Care Providers Are Organizing, Demanding More, and Winning

In Early Learning Nation: "I Can't Compete": Child Care Providers are Losing Staff to McDonald's and Target

In Lux: Child Care: The Radical is Popular

Also read:

* James Butler on the social care crisis in the U.K.

* Dana Goldstein on child care and private equity

* The ‘Fleishman Is in Trouble’ Effect (i.e. wealthy parents’ version of this crisis)

* More on the childcare provision in the CHIPS Act

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The kids (and parents) aren’t all right, with Bryce Covert

Time To Say Goodbye