Research has repeatedly shown that investment in a child’s first five years can determine life chances. So why is it so hard for so many families to access?
Maria Hernandez, a single mother of four in Waco,
Texas, ferries her children to school in between two
Job shifts, midnight to 6am, and 8am to 5pm. Shannon and Donnie Poff, parents to a four-year-old son in Henderson, Nevada, split childcare between staggered work shifts – Shannon as a nail technician during the day, Donnie as a security guard during the graveyard hours. Wahnika Johnson took time off work to care for her seven-month-old daughter in Yorktown,
Virginia, but worries about finding any affordable childcare once she returns. All three families – black, white, Hispanic, middle- and working-class, three different states – require childcare to stay afloat. And as depicted in the documentary No Small Matter, all three are cast adrift among a sea of challenges – access, cost, lack of quality options – in the decentralized and devalued Wild West of early childhood education in the US.
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