EXCERPTS

Key Points

• More than 200 child care and early learning providers across the U.S. have pledged to close their doors Monday to demand greater public investment in their services.
• Providers say the staffing crisis has hit a tipping point. Child care pays poverty-level wages.
• Parents also want more support and are helping to organize the demonstrations.

Hundreds of child care providers in 27 states and Washington, D.C., are going on strike Monday to remind policymakers how essential they are not only to families but to the nation’s economy too. 

Early childhood professionals – and the parents they serve – say they’re fed up with the lack of progress on policy promises such as better wages and expanded subsidies.