Press Release
Childcare for All: Providers, Parents, and Advocates Envision a Path to Universal Public Childcare
07. 21. 2025
As childcare costs fuel America’s affordability crisis, parents, providers and advocates unite around a universal public childcare system.
WASHINGTON – Over the past year, Roosevelt Institute and Community Change, in partnership with Economic Security Project, held a series of conversations with parents, childcare providers, and grassroots organizers to inform a broadstroke vision for universal public childcare. Today, they released their findings in Building a Vision for Universal Public Childcare: Principles for a Childcare System that Works for Workers and Families. The full text of the report is here.
This report comes amid mounting evidence that rising childcare costs are one of the key drivers of the affordability crisis. In 2021, former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said childcare is “a textbook example of a broken market,” and the state of play has only gotten worse in years since. According to recent data, the average cost of care for an infant exceeds the cost of in-state college tuition in 41 states. In many parts of the country, parents pay more for childcare than a mortgage or rent, putting formal care financially out of reach for many moderate and low-income families.
Even apart from its staggering costs, childcare is often too difficult to access. Half of all U.S. families live in a childcare desert, and poor compensation for providers continues to limit care options. Furthermore, the field faces a number of troubling trends, including a growing share of the market represented by private equity, which means children’s care and wellbeing is often tied to a corporation’s bottom line, and many states are pushing toward deregulating the industry, which means less oversight over corporate actors.
The Roosevelt Institute, Community Change and Economic Security Project sought to envision a public infrastructure of care that is sustainable, affordable, high-quality and universal to look beyond the limitations of the current landscape. Researchers spoke with parents, childcare providers, and grassroots organizers to identify what a universal public childcare system might require to meet the needs of families and providers, with attention to families’ financial needs; the needs of children with disabilities; the need for full-day, year-round care; the need for high-quality and age-appropriate youth development, care, and education; and the need for young children to have attentive, consistent relationships with providers.
The yearlong discussion series culminated in the following recommendations:
- The U.S. needs a universal public childcare system that is affordable, accessible and equitable to effectively meet families’ needs.
- A public, universal childcare system must provide safe, nurturing learning opportunities for all children, and be affordable, safe, high-quality, inclusive and culturally competent.
- To be successful, a universal public childcare model must be:
- Affordable: Accompanied by a significant federal investment to make childcare affordable (if not free) and expand access by encouraging providers to join or stay in the industry
- Universal: Universally accessible, with childcare as a legal right to all children with an affirmative obligation to ensure sufficient spots exist.
- Coordinated and Streamlined: Upheld by coordinated, non-fragmented governance structures; Federally administered through state and/or regional infrastructure to support implementation and expansion.
- Support a Thriving, Diverse Workforce: Offer thriving wages and benefits to a valued and well-resourced workforce, as well as support workers’ right to organize and collective bargaining.
- Inclusive and Culturally Competent: Provide culturally and linguistically competent care, options of expanded hours outside of the school day, and universally accessible services for early intervention and services for children with disabilities.
- Safe and High-Quality: Child-centered safety and quality with strong and consistent guidelines built with parent, family, and worker input.
- Built with a “Just Transition”: A universal system must be built through a process that includes a just transition for the current workforce.
- Creating a universal public childcare system of this sort will require:
- Significant, sustained, bold public investments,
- A sufficient workforce that is 1) inclusive of the existing workforce and empowers independent providers to make the transition to a new system, and 2) strengthened by a massive expansion of the field (specifically, more providers),
- An economic system that invites people to work in childcare by making its jobs “good jobs” with collective bargaining rights, family-sustaining wages and benefits at parity with K-12 educators,
- The support of a broader care system that, ideally, includes up to one year of paid parental leave and universal preschool for all.
“No marketplace has failed its participants as profoundly as childcare,” said Lena Bilik, program manager at the Roosevelt Institute. “Providers make poverty wages, while families still can’t afford, or in some cases, even find childcare. For too long, we’ve relied on the private sector and small, means-tested, demand-side investments to fix this failure. It’s time to envision a universal public childcare system that provides inclusive, high-quality care while facilitating a just transition that protects workers.”
“Universal child care is an economic necessity for parents and providers, especially the Black and brown women who are the backbone of the child care sector,” said Jennifer Wells, Director of Economic Justice at Community Change. “Providing affordable, high-quality care empowers families to thrive, supports workers’ rights, and creates a more equitable society for all.”
“Rising childcare costs not only hurt the families who struggle to pay them. Their effects ripple through communities, touching virtually every aspect of people’s lives and our economy,” said Harish Patel, Vice President of Partnerships at Economic Security Project. “We hope this report will drive conversations that lead to a better path forward and inspire the field to pursue a unified vision for universal public childcare, one that can replace the existing broken system failing millions of families.”
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About Roosevelt Institute
The Roosevelt Institute is a leading economic and social policy think tank and home to leading scholars, policy experts, and an expansive student network. Grounded in the values of our namesakes, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, we envision an economic system that promotes broadly shared prosperity and a thriving democracy.
About Community Change
Community Change is a national organization that builds the power of low-income people, especially people of color, to create a multiracial democracy and a fair economy where everyone can thrive. We can win big when directly affected people wield power through community organizing, big ideas, and the ballot box as the leaders of our movement.
About Economic Security Project
Economic Security Project advocates for ideas that build economic power for all Americans. We legitimize bold ideas by supporting cutting edge research and elevating champions, win concrete policy victories for the communities that need to see change now, and provoke the conventional wisdom to shift what’s considered possible. Our team of academics, organizers, practitioners and culture makers disburse grants, run issue campaigns, develop creative interventions and research products, and convene to encourage investment and action from others.