In 1988, my husband Cameron and I opened our first child care center, Cindy Campbell’s Day Care. Our first son had just been born, and it was a way for me to not have to work and find affordable child care for my son, which would have been financially difficult for my husband and I to do.
Today, we still have a child care crisis, and it’s hard on both parents and caregivers. Affordable, quality child care for parents is hard to find and afford, and caregivers like my husband and I need to be paid living wages to do this important work. We understand that these are very real situations for parents.
Fortunately, President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act includes proposals to alleviate child care stresses parents and caregivers face by making the biggest investment in child care in the nation’s history.
The Build Back Better Act would enable more families to qualify for child care assistance, capping child care costs at 7% of a family’s income. For the many families we know in our community who struggle with child care costs, this would alleviate the unnecessary stress of child care costs.
Additionally, the Build Back Better Act would ensure providers are paid a living wage for this essential work. This means my husband and I could buy new toys and higher grade food for the kids in our center. We could have extra diapers on hand for families who sometimes struggle to provide them for their children. We could also afford to take time off, which rarely happens.
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Cameron and I are grateful for the proposals in President Biden’s Build Back Better Act for the relief it would provide working families and caregivers in Wisconsin. No family should have to balance a paycheck with child care costs.
Cindy Campbell,
Superior
