By Elizabeth “True” DePaoli
$10,474 — that stunning sum represents the average yearly cost of child care for a single infant at a licensed center in South Carolina, according to Child Care Aware of America.
For many families, especially families with multiple children, child care is not just expensive, it is unaffordable.
This growing burden is pushing parents out of the workforce and discouraging family growth. Yet, while policymakers express alarm over declining birth rates and looming labor shortages, they aren’t investing in the very child care resources that make raising children feasible.
This contradiction has real consequences.
A 2023 report by ReadyNation estimates that the infant-toddler child care crisis costs the U.S. economy a staggering $122 billion annually in lost earnings, productivity, and tax revenue. It’s based on a December 2022 national survey commissioned by ReadyNation. Nearly one in four parents of children under 3 reported being fired for work interruptions due to child care struggles. Slightly more parents reported quitting a job due to child care problems.
The child care system’s collapse is much bigger than a burden on individual families. It is an economic and social failure that threatens long-term growth.
Yet, instead of addressing this crisis, federal leaders proposed a federal budget for the 2026 fiscal year which did not prioritize Head Start funding and did not increase it to meet inflationary demands.
Head Start is a long-standing federal program that serves over 750,000 low-income children up to 5 years old with early education, nutrition, and health services.
Funding freezes and layoffs at Head Start and similar programs don’t just affect low-income families; they significantly increase the strain on the broader child care network by increasing demand in a system already bordering on collapse. Reductions to early intervention services for babies with disabilities, services proven to improve educational outcomes, would compound the damage.
Meanwhile, amid Congress’ inability to agree on any funding, the federal government shutdown threatens Head Start programs nationwide.
It is tempting to frame this as a low-income issue, but middle-class and upper-middle-class families are feeling the pinch as well. Long wait lists, staffing shortages, and high turnover — in addition to affordability — make access to high quality child care difficult.
The consequences are more than financial.
When families cannot afford care, children miss out on critical early learning that sets the foundation for future academic success.
Research done over a decade ago shows that children who attend high-quality early childhood programs are more likely to graduate from high school, attend college, and stay out of the criminal justice system. Investing in early childhood programs is not charity; it is smart public policy with long-term returns.
We are also seeing the cracks in safety and oversight. In June 2024, two toddlers were found wandering a busy road in Greer, S.C., after leaving a daycare facility unsupervised.
While this may seem like an isolated incident, underfunded, understaffed programs cause alarming incidents like this to occur throughout the country. When facilities are forced to operate on thin margins with underpaid staff, the quality and safety of children suffer.
Acknowledging the problem is not enough. We must take meaningful action to support children and the caregivers who nurture them.
Fundamentally, child care must be recognized as economic infrastructure. Policymakers cannot claim to promote “self-reliance” while dismantling the systems that allow parents to work and families to thrive.
Affordable child care is not a handout. It is an important investment in our workforce, our economy, and our children’s futures.
We cannot ask families to have more children while making it harder and more expensive to care for them.
The child care crisis affects everyone: parents, children, employers, and taxpayers.
Until we treat it like the national emergency it is, no amount of concern about birth rates or labor shortages will change our course. If we want a better future, we must build it, starting with the youngest among us.
Elizabeth “True” DePaoli, originally from Columbia, is a junior at Furman University majoring in business administration with a concentration in entrepreneurship and a minor in poverty studies. This past summer, she interned at the Institute for Child Success through the Riley Institute Summer Experience. True is passionate about early childhood education and the importance of ensuring access to high-quality public schools. Her interest in education is deeply rooted in her background. Her mother was a teacher, and True is a graduate of the Richland School District Two public school system.
