Solving Child Care: Why it matters, why it’s tough, and what we can do

The word is out: Montanans list “child care” alongside housing and property taxes as issues impacting their lives. And it’s true that child care impacts the workforce of today AND tomorrow. Parents struggle to find child care (so much that many drop out of the workforce!) , and child care costs more than college (with little aid available) when they do find it. And with child care’s low wages and high turnover, child care professionals struggle to keep programs open and provide the high quality care all kids need and deserve. The child care crisis impacts everyone. And yet, improving the child care system seems surprisingly hard to do. So why is child care such a tricky problem to solve and what can leaders do to make an impact?

About Grace Decker: Grace (she/her) facilitates Montana Advocates for Children (MAC), the statewide coalition of organizations and stakeholders working to ensure all Montanans have access to a robust and coordinated early child care and education system. Grace graduated with honors from Brown University’s Education department and spent over 15 years in direct service in early care and education, including as founding director of the Missoula Community School. Before joining MBPC, Grace coordinated the local early childhood collaborative Zero to Five Missoula County, where she built cross-sector partnerships to launch systems-changing projects like the Kindergarten Entry Assessment, Early Learning Fellows, and Missoula Child Care Advantage. Originally from outside Boston, Grace has lived in Missoula since the early ‘90s, these days together with her husband, 16-year-old son, and two tiny dogs.