Capri Jackson: Kids are back in school, but too many parents are still out of work

By Capri Jackson

Every year when kids go back to school, many Washington parents go back to work.

For some of them, it’s simply the end of summer child care woes, part-time schedules, monthlong vacations and flex hours. But for countless others, their child’s first year in school means they’re finally able to press play on their career again.

Every year when I see the Target ads about back-to-school shopping or see parent friends post their first day of school photos, I think about how once my kids – both younger than 5 – start school, I’ll be able to work again.

I’m not alone. Washington, like many states, is in a statewide child care crisis. Nearly 40% of Washington parents quit working or got fired after having kids.

I never planned on being a stay-at-home parent. I love that I am able to take care of my two boys every day, but I didn’t exactly have a choice.

I live in Colville where, like a lot of rural communities, child care options are limited. When I was pregnant with my first child, there was one licensed facility for infants and a spot opened up. The business posted about it on social media and the spot was filled almost immediately.

That was the moment I realized I would have to quit my job and stay at home. Like many Washington parents – particularly women – the choice was made for me.

There’s nothing wrong with choosing to stay at home: It’s an amazing option if you can afford it. But that’s what it should be: an option, a choice.

But because of Washington’s child care crisis, it often isn’t. For many parents, child care is simply too expensive.

The median cost for infant care has skyrocketed 74% in the past decade. Where affordable spots exist, they are simply too few and far between, like in my community.

On top of this, child care workers are paid so appallingly low that nearly 1 in 5 lives in poverty. Low wages lead to high turnover, which destabilizes the child care industry.

It doesn’t have to be a forced choice for parents, and it doesn’t have to be so hard to find and afford care. Washington lawmakers could solve this by investing in capping costs for more middle-class families and expanding available child care by raising wages and training standards for caregivers.

We’ve made some progress in recent years, but considering nearly half of parents have to leave work to raise a family, there’s much more to be done. And of course, Initiative 2109 on the ballot in November threatens to repeal funding for early learning, making this crisis worse.

This isn’t a partisan issue. In fact, a state child care coalition released a poll that found 70% of Washington voters, including a majority across parties, supported lawmakers investing more in child care. Voters also supported asking wealthy corporations and multimillionaire households to pay what they should owe in taxes to do it.

Before I had my first child, I worked as a preventionist at a victim services agency. I loved my job, and the work I did provided an important service to my community. It’s a loss that parents have to quit our work – not just for our community, but for Washington’s entire economy. The state’s child care crisis is quite literally costing businesses.

According to a new economic report, the child care shortage is costing Washington’s economy $6 billion annually, both in costs to businesses from high turnover and absenteeism and in losses to family income.

The latter is especially important in small communities like mine. Having to quit my job means less income for my family, which means our budget is tighter and we have less money to spend at restaurants and other small businesses in our community. They have fewer customers and are unable to hire more people, and our entire economy suffers. By ensuring more parents who want to work while starting a family can, we’ll put more money in their pockets to spend in their local communities.

I shouldn’t have to wait until Target runs its 2027 back-to-school ads until I’m able to work again. For now, the only thing I can do is vote for candidates this November who commit to fighting for the child care investments that Washington’s kids, families and businesses need, and hold them accountable for following through. And I think a lot of working- and middle-class parents will join me.

The costs of not having child care are simply too high.

Capri Jackson is a precinct committee officer, and former abuse preventionist turned stay-at-home mother of two little boys and two not-so-little dogs. She lives in Colville.