America’s child care system did not become unaffordable and inaccessible by accident. More than 50 years ago, the country chose a different path—rejecting a national child care framework in favor of a largely private, market-based approach. The result has been a system that leaves parents struggling, providers underpaid, and communities without enough care. In the latest installment of Repairing America, Elliot Haspel examines what it would take to finally treat child care as a public good—and why states experimenting with new models may offer a roadmap forward.

America’s parents today live under the shadow of two days in 1971. On December 9 of that year, President Richard Nixon vetoed a piece of legislation known as the Comprehensive Child Development Act. The bill, passed through Congress with bipartisan support, would have begun funding a locally run network of high-quality child care programs. Writing with language that could likely be penned today, the Washington Post editorial board opined that, “As every working mother knows, unless she is lucky enough to have a trusted relative down the street, it is almost impossible to find a good child care setup in most communities at any price,” and the legislation “just might provide a vehicle for a new national effort to make childhood livable.”

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Working on this story reinforced for me that the battle over child care’s future is both a battle for getting parents the help they need but also a battle for defining the relationship between families and government. We are living at a true inflection point where more universalistic approaches are finally coming into vogue, and as Helene Stebbins said there is finally some real momentum. It’s so clear to me from talking to parents like Meredith Maskell that the positive ripple effects of shifting the nation’s mindset around care would be enormous. I hope America takes advantage of this opportunity, because history shows us they don’t come around all that often.

— Elliot Haspel