Elliot Haspel is a child and family policy expert whose work has been published in the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, and elsewhere. He's the author of Crawling Behind: America's Child Care Crisis and How to Fix It and Raising a Nation: 10 Reasons Every American Has a Stake in Child Care For All.
Even strong defenders of childcare sometimes rely on the economic case that childcare programs keep workers in the labor force. While it’s not wrong, that argument misses the true role of childcare: social infrastructure that keeps families connected.
Democrats have far better childcare and education ideas than Republicans, but their tendency to frame such policies as mere “good business” misses what really matters about the policies: the freedom to make life meaningful for both parents and kids.
The poverty line is arbitrary, and many who clear the threshold are still suffering in ways no decent society should allow. The true goal of public policy shouldn’t be nudging people over the poverty line but enabling people to lead good lives.