Childcare in Nashville
This weekend marks an important milestone for most Nashville families. It was 3 years ago this Saturday when Metro schools announced that, due to Covid-related concerns, schools would close early for Spring Break. As we now know, our kids didn’t go back to school that year, and many of them only returned briefly the following year.
I remember so clearly when my oldest kid’s school shut down - I was in his Music Room watching a performance. My baby was 6 weeks old and in a bit of a fussy mood, so she was being passed around from parent to parent in an attempt at group soothing. At that moment, the text came through that school would close early for Spring Break. It would be another week before my middle child’s daycare would shut down, which incidentally was the week before my baby was supposed to start at that daycare.
What happened in and after March 2020 was a blur for me, as it was for most families. We were suddenly without childcare and without support from loved ones and friends. We were seemingly forgotten by all levels of government, and we were needed like never before by employers and clients. We were all forced to make due in isolation, the result of which was devastating to our careers and lives. To this day, many women remain out of the workforce and many of the jobs we had before the pandemic have not come back.
A funny other thing happened, though: In the middle of what would turn into our never ending, month-after-month, slog to make due, the long simmering, quiet conversations about how hard and expensive childcare was became loud and public. We openly shared our collective rage at our difficult experiences. I thought my third kid would be an easy addition - I’d done it twice before! - but, as it turned out, I had no idea what was coming or that it would push me to use my voice like I never knew I could. I know many of you had similar experiences.
It was this experience, along with 11 years of kids in daycare and time serving on the Board of a daycare, that has led me to believe these simple facts:
Childcare should not be just a woman’s problem, even though women disproportionately take on the burdens of childcare.
A functioning, equal society demands that we support working parents and their children through the early years of a child’s life.
Accessible childcare is a market failure.
Raising children is a community experience and must be robustly supported by society.
We will never have an affordable, sustainable City if we fail to support families during their children’s early years.
As a City, we have to be willing to invest in early childhood support. As a council member, I promise to push for all available tools to increase daycare capacity in town and lower the cost of daycares. These tools are vast and include
Expand nonprofit programs in schools to provide lower cost childcare to our teachers
Use public financing tools to support building daycares
Expand early childhood programs in MNPS and coupling those programs with nonprofit programs in schools to bridge the afterschool gap in care for families
Implement a pilot Trishare program at the local level to lower the cost of childcare
Invest in personnel within the Office of Economic and Community Development to establish ongoing coordination in our efforts to provide and expand childcare
We would add hundreds of affordable, quality childcare spaces to our City each year for less than ⅓ of 1% of our current annual City budget by combining these tools. We must put in the time and money to create these accessible, affordable childcare options to continue to be the City where we can and want to live.
I’m running for Council because I believe we can do this and we must do this. Three years of rage is enough, and with your help, we can make it better for those who come after us. We can make sure that parents are never again left alone, required to take on debt to cover basic childcare needs, and forced to choose between jobs they need and kids who need them.
Together we can make this happen for ourselves and our neighbors. Together we can make big things happen.
