Working families are hurting. They’re hurting from rising grocery prices. Hurting from skyrocketing housing costs that are making it harder to keep a roof over their heads. And hurting as they see health care costs rise, while support from their elected leaders falls. We’re in the throes of a dire affordability crisis.
And it could get even worse: child care is now on the chopping block.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced it was freezing over $10 billion in critical federal funding set aside to help families afford child care and the rising cost of living. For now, that means parents in five states where the White House has a political axe to grind — Minnesota, New York, California, Illinois, and Colorado — could be left scrambling to find care.
This is a blatant, targeted attack on working people. It’s an attack on children who deserve a safe space to learn and grow. It’s an attack on all of the child care providers — thousands of whom are AFSCME members — who rely on this funding to keep their doors open. And it’s an attack on every working parent who counts on reliable, affordable child care so that they can go to work each day and earn a living.
It’s heartbreaking. And yet sadly, it’s not surprising.
This latest scheme comes from the same pro-billionaire playbook this administration has used throughout its first year in office. It’s part of the same campaign that has cut health care and taken food off Americans’ tables to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.
Make no mistake: not a single billionaire will lose access to their child care or scramble to arrange for someone to look after their child as a result of these freezes. For them, this kind of essential service isn’t a lifeline to hold on to — it’s a line item to cut.
The Trump administration isn’t just ignoring the cost-of-living crisis we find ourselves in. They’re actively making it worse.
But we’re fighting back — because we believe that in America, you shouldn’t have to choose between raising a family or earning a living. And we believe that children and working parents should be high priorities, not political hostages, for our elected leaders.
A federal judge has issued a temporary pause to the child care funding freeze, but we still have work to do to help working families. AFSCME members must continue to organize, to talk to our co-workers about what’s at stake, to call Congress and share with them the devastating impact of deep cuts in child care funding and call on them to invest even more. And we will use our political power, too — in this year’s elections, we will remember which politicians stood with children and families and which ones betrayed them.
We’re not helpless when we’re united. And we’re not powerless when we speak with one, unified voice. Even as anti-worker forces set out to dismantle essential services and enrich themselves, we’ll keep fighting to make sure the American Dream remains within reach for all working parents, and that means making child care affordable for all.