Childcare For All Campaign

It is the work which makes all other work possible–work for which all of us are responsible, because when children and parents are able to enjoy high quality child care, we all benefit.

Yet for too long, Virginia’s politicians and corporate elites have failed to invest in high-quality, accessible, and affordable childcare for all Virginians. The pandemic has worsened childcare availability for parents and other caregivers, with women and caregivers of color bearing the brunt of this impact. Today, we live with the results of this failure: an expensive and understaffed system of private care providers. Thousands of overworked and underpaid care workers and educators. Thousands more parents and caregivers with unaffordable options for childcare, competing for increasingly fewer slots on long waiting lists. Meanwhile, Virginia’s nine billionaires increased their wealth by $19 billion over the first two years of the pandemic–wealth accumulated through the labor of many of those same parents, caregivers, and childcare workers. 

An alternative is possible. At United Campus Workers of Virginia, a union by and for public higher ed workers, our members believe all education–including pre-K–is a right and a public good. With the launch of our Childcare for All campaign, UCWVA won’t stop until we ensure all Virginia’s campus workers have free, high-quality, universal pre-K childcare, funded through taxes on the wealthy, staffed by workers making a livable wage. This last point is especially important because we know that care providers’ working conditions affect all of us. The first step towards ensuring Virginia’s children have skilled care workers who are here for the long haul is paying them living wages with benefits, so they too can afford to live and thrive in the communities they serve. 

It is possible to have free, accessible childcare. From Oregon to West Virginia, working people have made universal pre-K a reality through organizing. Virginia needs to catch up. Our hard-earned money is disappearing into a failed private-care provider system, and we’re taking steps to send it back to Virginia families. We will make universal pre-K a reality by coming together as educators, university staff, care workers, and parents to center care as a community-wide responsibility.   

Universal pre-K means more student parents get to stay in school. It means closing the gender gap in campus workers’ pay, promotion, and retention. It means building workplaces that value caring for everyone. It means creating the necessary foundation for all campus workers to not just survive but thrive.