Reshma Saujani, founder of Moms First and Girls Who Code, believes that access to affordable childcare is one of America’s greatest unmet economic needs.
Jamel Toppin for Forbes
A “childcare cliff” is imminent: On September 30, the $24 billion in federal support for U.S. childcare, which came as a part of the pandemic-era American Rescue Plan, is set to expire. Economists project that this expiration of funding could result in the closure of as many as 70,000 childcare programs across the country; more than 3 million children stand to lose their spots in daycare, while parents—who may have to pull out of the workforce to take care of their children—could collectively lose $9 billion in lost earnings.
“Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, whether you live in Idaho or New York City, you are going to feel the effects when we go off the cliff,” says Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code and Moms First. “It’s devastating. And it just shows that we live in a country that doesn’t put families first.”
Saujani spoke at the 11th annual Forbes Power Women Summit in New York City last week about how she’s fighting for equal pay for women, national paid leave, and better private- and public-sector support for childcare services through Moms First. In a conversation with ForbesWomen editor Maggie McGrath, she emphasized that “childcare is an economic issue, not a social issue,” and the key to unlocking American competitiveness on the global stage is “prioritizing the things that are preventing us from having a fully participating workforce.”
This means, Saujani says, that for all the private sector’s focus on the growth of AI-enabled services and technologies, workers’ access to affordable childcare that could be an even bigger boon to American innovation. And the good news, Saujani says, is that corporate leaders are starting to wake up to this reality.
“I have felt the most intensity [on this issue] from CEOs,” she says. “They realize we’re in a tight labor market, they’re starting to feel stability and they know that childcare is the number one thing they hear from employees about what’s causing friction in their ability to show up for work consistently.”
Click the video below or watch on our Forbes YouTube page to hear more about what Saujani says every business leader needs to know ahead of the September 30 funding expiration—and what she sees as the greatest entrepreneurial opportunities that exist in this space right now:
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