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.

If there’s one thing Democratic and Republican politicians can agree on, it’s that childcare is the workforce behind the workforce. “Our child care workers are the workforce behind the workforce, risking their health and safety on the front lines to ensure that parents can go to work,” then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in 2020. Republican representative Ashley Hinson echoed Pelosi in 2024, asserting that childcare staff “are the workforce behind the workforce, and I don’t want to see parents having to make that choice between working or s

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