Trey Kay Published

Forced Apart: Can Our Economy Rebound Without Safe, Reliable Child Care?

A child in a mask stands against a stucco wall. Text reads FORCED APART: CAN OUR ECONOMY REBOUND WITHOUT  RELIABLE, SAFE CHILD CARE? WVPB
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The coronavirus has divided the world’s workforce into some new categories. White collar workers are remote employees who can do their jobs from home. Blue collar workers are often essential, front-line workers who must show up on the job to keep the supply chain and service industries moving. Essential medical workers keep our hospitals and clinics open. And there’s another group of workers on which the success of all the above — and some argue our very economy — rely: child-care workers.

Early on in the pandemic, many states declared day-care facilities to be critical care sites and ordered them open to care for the children of our essential workers. Months later, those businesses face continually evolving regulations designed to keep children and workers safe. The success of our services and our economy is banking on them.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and the West Virginia Humanities Council.

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