WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.720 --> 00:00:04.280 This is parent data. I'm Emily Oster. 2 00:00:06.080 --> 00:00:11.080 We're coming up on yet another contentious national election. We're 3 00:00:11.080 --> 00:00:14.240 being told again that our democracy hangs in the balance. 4 00:00:15.360 --> 00:00:19.120 It is easy to feel helpless. You can cast a vote, 5 00:00:19.239 --> 00:00:23.360 and you definitely should, and if you're particularly tenacious, you 6 00:00:23.400 --> 00:00:28.480 can canvas, you can donate money. But for busy working parents, 7 00:00:29.320 --> 00:00:31.319 sometimes it feels like there's not much more we can 8 00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:38.080 do than doom scroll and panic. When I'm feeling particularly 9 00:00:38.159 --> 00:00:41.960 hopeless about the entire national discourse, I find it helpful 10 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:46.239 to focus on local politics, where it often feels like 11 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:50.279 things really can actually change, and where the people who 12 00:00:50.280 --> 00:00:54.600 are trying to make the changes feel approachable but often 13 00:00:54.920 --> 00:01:00.760 no less inspiring. And that's why I'm so excited, especially 14 00:01:00.760 --> 00:01:02.720 this week, to share my conversation. 15 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:03.200 With Ali Richards. 16 00:01:04.280 --> 00:01:07.280 Ali is the CEO of Let's Grow Kids, and they're 17 00:01:07.319 --> 00:01:10.360 on a mission to ensure affordable access to high quality 18 00:01:10.440 --> 00:01:14.080 childcare for all Vermont families by twenty twenty five. On 19 00:01:14.120 --> 00:01:17.039 a mission to do that, they've actually done a lot 20 00:01:17.080 --> 00:01:20.160 of it. In June of twenty twenty three, the Vermont 21 00:01:20.240 --> 00:01:24.200 Legislature made history by passing a childcare bill into law 22 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:28.640 with overwhelming support from across the political spectrum. This is 23 00:01:28.680 --> 00:01:32.640 a comprehensive bill which supports childcare through subsidies and both 24 00:01:32.680 --> 00:01:37.880 directions to families and also to childcare providers. It's a 25 00:01:37.920 --> 00:01:40.080 first of its kind for Vermont and for the nation, 26 00:01:40.840 --> 00:01:42.319 and it provides a model for. 27 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:43.920 Other states to hopefully follow. 28 00:01:45.080 --> 00:01:48.440 We start our conversation here ready to calmly chat about 29 00:01:48.520 --> 00:01:51.200 policy and about all the amazing progress that they've made 30 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:56.000 in Vermont. And I ended the conversation with my fist 31 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:58.400 pumping in the air, running down the hallway to talk 32 00:01:58.400 --> 00:01:59.960 about all the things that I was going to do 33 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:02.760 so to totally replicate what Ali is doing. 34 00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:05.559 Ali is the kind of advocate. 35 00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:07.640 Who is going to restore your faith in policy, your 36 00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:09.400 faith in politics to the. 37 00:02:09.400 --> 00:02:10.480 Extent that's possible. 38 00:02:11.200 --> 00:02:13.840 And I'm really excited to give you a dose of 39 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:19.120 hope in anticipation of November fifth. In this conversation, we 40 00:02:19.240 --> 00:02:23.960 talk about grassroots mobilization, about clipboards at county fairs, about 41 00:02:24.040 --> 00:02:27.239 knocking on doors and how important that is. We talk 42 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:30.800 about the economics of change. We give the cold hard 43 00:02:30.919 --> 00:02:36.079 capitalist case for childcare and for childcare subsidies. We talk 44 00:02:36.120 --> 00:02:38.680 about the importance of the quality of care, for kids 45 00:02:38.680 --> 00:02:41.320 from zero to five, and we talk about what it 46 00:02:41.360 --> 00:02:45.400 means for childcare to pay for itself, which it actually does. 47 00:02:45.200 --> 00:02:46.960 If you take a long enough perspective. 48 00:02:48.240 --> 00:02:53.560 Get ready to be inspired after the break, Ali Richards, 49 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:58.960 I am delighted to welcome Ali Richards to the Parent 50 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:03.120 Data Podcast. Ali, thanks for being here. Can you start 51 00:03:03.160 --> 00:03:04.280 by introducing yourself? 52 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:08.880 Absolutely, I'm Ali Richards. I live in Vermont, and I'm 53 00:03:08.880 --> 00:03:11.959 the CEO of Let's Grow Kids, where we really lead 54 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:15.200 a statewide campaign to end Vermont's childcare crisis by twenty 55 00:03:15.240 --> 00:03:18.160 twenty five. I'm also the mother of identical twin boys 56 00:03:18.200 --> 00:03:21.480 who started kindergarten last week, Bow and Wesley. So, Emily, 57 00:03:21.480 --> 00:03:23.840 you must get this a lot, but it is absolutely 58 00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:25.919 a delight to be on this with you. And you 59 00:03:26.040 --> 00:03:29.680 were seminal in my pregnancy with these twins and the 60 00:03:29.720 --> 00:03:33.320 early stages of their lives. So thank you for that. 61 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:37.600 Really appreciate you revolutionized the younger generation having kids here. 62 00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:39.040 That's so nice. 63 00:03:39.040 --> 00:03:40.360 Tamorrow, definitely leave that part. 64 00:03:40.360 --> 00:03:41.520 Anna. 65 00:03:42.760 --> 00:03:46.240 So I'm excited to talk to you because I feel 66 00:03:46.280 --> 00:03:49.320 like so much of our childcare discussion is kind of 67 00:03:49.400 --> 00:03:52.520 in a negative frame, like what's wrong and why things 68 00:03:52.520 --> 00:03:57.360 are broken and you have a vision that you are 69 00:03:57.400 --> 00:03:59.760 making a lot of progress on for how things could be. 70 00:04:00.440 --> 00:04:04.600 So before we get into like the nitty gritty, can 71 00:04:04.640 --> 00:04:07.520 you just give us a sort of big picture overview 72 00:04:07.640 --> 00:04:13.040 of what was the problem that you thought about solving 73 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:14.720 when you started. 74 00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:17.279 Let's grow, like, where's the origin problem here? 75 00:04:17.640 --> 00:04:20.800 Oh? Yeah, Well, for me personally, I'm motivated to do 76 00:04:20.880 --> 00:04:23.720 the thing that's going to have the biggest possible positive 77 00:04:23.720 --> 00:04:26.200 impact on the most amount of people. And it's amazing 78 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:30.120 because early child education and in this infrastructure or lack thereof, 79 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:35.120 to me, is our incredible opportunity of our time in society. 80 00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:38.960 So it's one of those like beautiful root cause issues 81 00:04:39.160 --> 00:04:41.560 that when you make a positive impact on, it's gonna 82 00:04:41.560 --> 00:04:42.240 have this ripple effect. 83 00:04:42.320 --> 00:04:42.400 Right. 84 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:45.920 So the big picture problem is in Vermont and across 85 00:04:45.920 --> 00:04:48.120 this country. I'm sure this is very familiar to and 86 00:04:48.680 --> 00:04:51.320 you know your listeners. Three out of five of Vermont's 87 00:04:51.360 --> 00:04:54.960 youngest kids needed some form of childcare out of the 88 00:04:54.960 --> 00:04:57.320 home and did not have access. So not even the 89 00:04:57.360 --> 00:04:59.760 whole population for those who needed access, three out of 90 00:04:59.760 --> 00:05:03.640 five didn't have it. And then you know those families 91 00:05:03.640 --> 00:05:06.920 who find what little childcare is available, feel amazing about 92 00:05:06.960 --> 00:05:09.279 finding it. Realize they're paying forty percent of their house 93 00:05:09.279 --> 00:05:11.560 of the income on so it's not accessible. There's not 94 00:05:11.640 --> 00:05:14.640 nearly enough of it. It is unaffordable. And if you 95 00:05:14.640 --> 00:05:17.440 want to flip over to those doing the work, early 96 00:05:17.560 --> 00:05:20.160 educators do not make a level wage. I mean, honestly, 97 00:05:20.279 --> 00:05:22.760 fifteen dollars an hour without benefits is the average in 98 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:25.760 Vermont before our workout going up here. So you know, 99 00:05:25.960 --> 00:05:29.760 that just gives you a sense absolute crisis in affordability, 100 00:05:29.800 --> 00:05:33.359 access and quality of an essential infrastructure that we have 101 00:05:33.480 --> 00:05:37.200 ignored for some reason in this society. And that is 102 00:05:37.200 --> 00:05:39.520 the problem. And another thing is it's in market failure. Right. 103 00:05:39.560 --> 00:05:43.120 I'm actually in TC today for one hundred percent, you know, 104 00:05:43.320 --> 00:05:45.240 hearing from folks who are finally starting to get this 105 00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:48.120 from the US chamber side, you know, from the economic 106 00:05:48.440 --> 00:05:50.760 advisor side, they're finally talking about it the way we 107 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:54.400 are in Vermont. This is essential infrastructure, that's economic infrastructure. 108 00:05:55.160 --> 00:05:58.320 And so anyway, I'm just the reason why it's a 109 00:05:58.360 --> 00:06:01.880 market failure is because use parents cannot afford to pay more. 110 00:06:02.040 --> 00:06:05.320 Early educators cannot afford to make less. There is a solution. 111 00:06:05.480 --> 00:06:08.040 It is not rocket science, and it's working in Vermont. 112 00:06:09.040 --> 00:06:11.839 So let's talk about before we get into the solution. 113 00:06:12.080 --> 00:06:15.960 I want to talk a little specifically about what people 114 00:06:16.040 --> 00:06:19.160 do when they cannot find childcare, because we see this 115 00:06:19.880 --> 00:06:22.600 statistic talked about, our versions of the statistic, talked about 116 00:06:22.600 --> 00:06:24.839 all the time that people can't access childcare. There's a 117 00:06:24.880 --> 00:06:28.880 childcare desert. Where's my childcare? What are people doing when 118 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:30.039 they can't have childcare? 119 00:06:31.160 --> 00:06:32.919 They're doing all sorts of things. I think that's a 120 00:06:32.960 --> 00:06:35.680 funny part about this work. And I've been lesser kids 121 00:06:35.720 --> 00:06:40.080 for nine years now. You know what we are saying 122 00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:42.600 is this is not the thing that everyone needs to do. 123 00:06:42.680 --> 00:06:46.160 We're saying young families have zero choices right now. That's 124 00:06:46.240 --> 00:06:48.560 the real situation on the ground across this country, and 125 00:06:48.640 --> 00:06:51.720 so people are dropping out of the workforce in droves, 126 00:06:51.960 --> 00:06:55.680 especially women. This is for women who choose to be 127 00:06:55.680 --> 00:06:57.000 in a career, who would like to be in a 128 00:06:57.000 --> 00:06:59.280 career that they train for right who don't want to 129 00:06:59.320 --> 00:07:03.080 lose their earning power. And by the way, a labor 130 00:07:03.200 --> 00:07:06.960 is shortage, especially in rural parts of this country like Vermont, 131 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:10.880 that we cannot recover from without mobilizing especially women into 132 00:07:10.880 --> 00:07:13.200 the workforce. So you've got people dropping down the workforce. 133 00:07:13.240 --> 00:07:15.160 It does not pay. First, you can't find the childcare, 134 00:07:15.200 --> 00:07:17.480 and it does not pay. There are kids then falling 135 00:07:17.480 --> 00:07:20.440 through the cracks. You have to juggle split shifts. You 136 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:23.520 know what does that do for a family? Think about that. 137 00:07:24.160 --> 00:07:26.480 You don't see each other ever when your kids you're young. 138 00:07:26.600 --> 00:07:30.400 We actually had this. We had a really amazing childcare 139 00:07:30.440 --> 00:07:33.760 advocate in Vermont who came from Black River Produce, a 140 00:07:33.800 --> 00:07:36.880 business advocate, and he told the story of why he 141 00:07:36.960 --> 00:07:39.880 became an evangelist on this because he saw one of 142 00:07:39.920 --> 00:07:43.200 his employees pass their young child through the delivery service 143 00:07:43.240 --> 00:07:45.760 window between shifts from the mom to the dad, and 144 00:07:45.840 --> 00:07:47.360 they did a night shift and a day shift. They 145 00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:49.560 never saw each other and they literally passed through the 146 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:52.080 night through the delivery window. Right, that's what we are 147 00:07:52.080 --> 00:07:54.320 trying to avoid here. If you actually sat down and 148 00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:57.280 did this, you would never create the system that we 149 00:07:57.360 --> 00:08:00.400 have today. So anyway, that's what they're doing. Kids, Our 150 00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:03.040 kids are flying through the cracks. Families are flying through 151 00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:06.720 the cracks. The stress levels through the roof. People are 152 00:08:06.840 --> 00:08:09.840 they We're losing them in the workforce, right, And well, 153 00:08:09.840 --> 00:08:12.320 I'm sure we'll talk more about this. But what we 154 00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:15.920 know about this time in a child's development is one thing, 155 00:08:16.080 --> 00:08:19.440 and then there's the economic opportunity and workforce development piece. 156 00:08:19.480 --> 00:08:21.560 So this is like the smart thing and the right 157 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:24.200 thing to do everything on the spectrum from child development 158 00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:26.480 and beyond. And that's where when you ask, well, where 159 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:31.600 are kids? They're not in a safe, stimulating environment that 160 00:08:31.640 --> 00:08:34.760 we absolutely know they need to reach their full potential 161 00:08:34.760 --> 00:08:36.760 and success in life, which we can talk more about 162 00:08:36.760 --> 00:08:37.520 the data behind that. 163 00:08:39.800 --> 00:08:44.320 So tell me what you did. Tell me you face 164 00:08:44.400 --> 00:08:47.600 this problem. Many states, the whole country is facing versions 165 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:48.160 of this problem. 166 00:08:48.400 --> 00:08:48.920 What did you do? 167 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:55.040 Basically, we built a campaign, you know, because one of 168 00:08:55.080 --> 00:08:59.520 the issues this is a complex issue. Also, the solution, 169 00:08:59.559 --> 00:09:01.640 I'm just going to jump right to the punchline is 170 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:06.840 telling them, fine, I'm sorry, Oh money, money. Guess what. 171 00:09:06.960 --> 00:09:09.680 People don't often have the courage to move large sums 172 00:09:09.720 --> 00:09:11.680 of money around. I have found out in my work 173 00:09:11.720 --> 00:09:15.200 in public service here. So so let me just say, 174 00:09:15.320 --> 00:09:18.000 you know, one more piece of the foundational thing. We 175 00:09:20.400 --> 00:09:23.200 a group of entrepreneurial people and Vermont did not set 176 00:09:23.240 --> 00:09:25.960 out to necessarily fix childcare from the start. They set 177 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:29.640 out to make Vermont a thriving economy, a great place 178 00:09:29.679 --> 00:09:34.679 to raise children. And you know, it ended up that 179 00:09:34.720 --> 00:09:36.400 this became our focus, and it's because of what we 180 00:09:36.440 --> 00:09:39.680 sort of started to nibble around earlier. The most critical 181 00:09:39.720 --> 00:09:42.280 time of a child's development, as you well know, is 182 00:09:42.840 --> 00:09:45.199 zero to five, zero three especially, but zero to five. 183 00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:47.520 And I don't think people really internalize yet, even though 184 00:09:47.520 --> 00:09:50.280 the science is so unequivocal that what do we actually 185 00:09:50.360 --> 00:09:52.640 mean by that? The foundation you build upon for the 186 00:09:52.679 --> 00:09:55.440 rest of your life from everything from yes, read and 187 00:09:55.440 --> 00:09:57.880 write in arithmetic that's the sort of more intuitive stuff, 188 00:09:58.120 --> 00:10:02.320 but even chronic disease, executive functioning right, critical thinking, the 189 00:10:02.360 --> 00:10:05.120 ability to have healthy relationships with others over a lifetime, 190 00:10:05.800 --> 00:10:09.120 you know, actually propensity for against addictive behavior. So if 191 00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:11.280 you think about all the things that plague us down 192 00:10:11.320 --> 00:10:14.480 the road in our society, they are being baked or 193 00:10:14.520 --> 00:10:16.959 supported in zero to five. So then the question is, so, 194 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:19.480 where the heck are these kids at this most critical time? 195 00:10:20.400 --> 00:10:22.400 And they're not in the place that they need or 196 00:10:22.440 --> 00:10:25.679 want to be, And so that's why it's an infrastructure problem. 197 00:10:25.679 --> 00:10:28.000 So in Vermont, a bunch of entrepreneurs over many years 198 00:10:28.040 --> 00:10:30.680 sort of did some grant making, did some experimenting, and 199 00:10:30.920 --> 00:10:33.040 you know, honestly did some public policy work and said 200 00:10:33.160 --> 00:10:36.120 we're not moving the needle. We need to pool our efforts. 201 00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:39.760 We need a focus campaign with a laser like focus 202 00:10:39.800 --> 00:10:42.319 on the most ambitious but achievable thing that we can do. 203 00:10:42.640 --> 00:10:44.960 So we launched Let'scrow Kids. Basically it was a ten 204 00:10:45.040 --> 00:10:48.640 year campaign. Really honestly, it's a movement, Emily, a movement 205 00:10:48.760 --> 00:10:51.800 for high quality, affordable childcare in Vermont for all who 206 00:10:51.800 --> 00:10:54.520 need it by twenty twenty five. Boom. So that's the 207 00:10:54.600 --> 00:10:57.280 road we've been on. We're a one stop shop. And 208 00:10:57.320 --> 00:10:59.120 remember Man's a pretty small place, so we have six 209 00:10:59.200 --> 00:11:01.600 hundred and fifty thousand people and we can talk more 210 00:11:01.600 --> 00:11:04.840 about like so is it relevant or not? And again 211 00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:06.920 I won't bury the lead. I think it's one hundred 212 00:11:06.920 --> 00:11:09.840 percent relevant. We are actually showing not only when you 213 00:11:09.840 --> 00:11:11.959 get this right, this guy doesn't fall, but it's absolutely 214 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:13.760 doable and great things happen to your people in your 215 00:11:13.760 --> 00:11:15.920 economy when you do it. So you know, sort of 216 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:19.400 as a model here that is transferable in many ways 217 00:11:19.400 --> 00:11:23.120 from strategy to the outcome. Right in Vermont, we marched 218 00:11:23.160 --> 00:11:26.520 along and basically said people policy programs, that's how we 219 00:11:26.559 --> 00:11:29.920 set ourselves up. So people over forty thousand Vermontors, again, 220 00:11:29.920 --> 00:11:32.960 that's six percent of our population, they're actively involved in 221 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:37.120 this campaign in Vermont. They're families, they're early educators. 222 00:11:37.280 --> 00:11:38.000 That's crazy. 223 00:11:38.480 --> 00:11:42.959 Yeah, that's ten years of clipboards at fairs and emails 224 00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:46.160 and canvas scene and door knocking, I mean neighbor to 225 00:11:46.200 --> 00:11:52.480 neighbor peer conversations like grassroots mobilization, grassproots and mobilization. So 226 00:11:52.800 --> 00:11:56.800 also putting early educators in the driver's seat, putting parents 227 00:11:56.840 --> 00:11:59.280 in the driver's seat, like nothing about us without us. 228 00:11:59.320 --> 00:12:01.920 You want this public policy to work, it has to 229 00:12:01.920 --> 00:12:04.520 be not just informed by lead by those closest to it, right, 230 00:12:04.559 --> 00:12:08.559 So engaging these forty thousand people in a very sophisticated way. 231 00:12:08.800 --> 00:12:11.240 These are folks who have stood up and said we 232 00:12:11.320 --> 00:12:13.400 must fix child care in Vermont. I believe it's an 233 00:12:13.400 --> 00:12:15.680 imperative and I believe it will take public investment to 234 00:12:15.679 --> 00:12:17.320 do it. So it's not just like yeah, I like kids, 235 00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:19.320 it's like, nope, we know this is hard work. We're 236 00:12:19.320 --> 00:12:20.880 going to do the hard work it's going to take 237 00:12:20.880 --> 00:12:23.560 to really get it done. And bipartisan, right, we can 238 00:12:23.559 --> 00:12:26.520 talk more about that. So, so forty thousand more monitors. 239 00:12:26.520 --> 00:12:29.360 People power creates a public will. And by the way, 240 00:12:29.400 --> 00:12:33.360 I'll just mentioned quickly stepped over many years, right. We 241 00:12:33.440 --> 00:12:36.200 started with that brain science, Hey, what's the value proposition? 242 00:12:36.280 --> 00:12:39.319 Do you know? And we polled and people did not know. 243 00:12:39.400 --> 00:12:42.640 People did not realize zero to five was this incredible 244 00:12:42.640 --> 00:12:44.120 time and there was such a crisis. So then we 245 00:12:44.200 --> 00:12:48.079 pivoted to emergency. Emergency that got people's attention. Once we 246 00:12:48.160 --> 00:12:50.280 laid a foundation, we went to guess what we are 247 00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:53.720 in a crisis level of access, affordabilion, quality, and that resonated, 248 00:12:53.720 --> 00:12:56.640 as you can imagine, because everyone has a story, a parent, 249 00:12:56.760 --> 00:13:00.120 a grandparent, an early educator, and employer. Everyone connects the 250 00:13:00.160 --> 00:13:02.960 childcare crisis in America. So all of a sudden, then 251 00:13:03.600 --> 00:13:06.439 we had the value, we had the crisis, and that's 252 00:13:06.440 --> 00:13:08.040 when we were able to pivot the solution. So with 253 00:13:08.040 --> 00:13:11.480 these forty thousand people, we created this authorizing environment for 254 00:13:11.640 --> 00:13:14.680 policy change, the next big bucket policy change. I'm sorry 255 00:13:14.679 --> 00:13:19.000 to say, when you want to change systemic, deep rooted issues, 256 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:22.079 there is no other way than policy, of course, as 257 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:24.960 you know, and so in this case, we worked for 258 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:27.920 many years with this major coalition to just know what 259 00:13:28.040 --> 00:13:28.520 is it here? 260 00:13:28.600 --> 00:13:28.720 Right? 261 00:13:28.760 --> 00:13:31.680 What is the policy change that fixes this? Well, like 262 00:13:31.720 --> 00:13:35.200 I said, early educators can't afford to make less, parents 263 00:13:35.240 --> 00:13:38.560 can afford to pay more. So you need public investment 264 00:13:38.600 --> 00:13:41.360 to fill that gap. There is no other way you 265 00:13:41.440 --> 00:13:43.880 cannot create. It's like if all of us said, hey, 266 00:13:43.880 --> 00:13:45.720 we have young kids, let's all pay out of our 267 00:13:45.720 --> 00:13:48.360 own pocket to make the school for them, to pay 268 00:13:48.400 --> 00:13:50.040 for their teachers, to pay for the rent, to pay 269 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:52.920 for the HVAC. Like, wouldn't happen, right, So you just 270 00:13:53.040 --> 00:13:56.400 cannot get around it without the public investment. And so 271 00:13:56.440 --> 00:13:58.040 we worked on the policy change. And by the way, 272 00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:01.040 every state that's doing this and federal work on this, 273 00:14:01.360 --> 00:14:03.360 we all have come to the same conclusion. This is 274 00:14:03.400 --> 00:14:06.200 a low risk pop position. You push money into the system. 275 00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:08.440 It goes to families so it's more affordable for them, 276 00:14:08.600 --> 00:14:10.560 it goes to early educators so they have higher wages 277 00:14:10.600 --> 00:14:13.400 and they can meet their operational needs. That's how you 278 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:16.760 fix us. And then we did programmatic work, so people 279 00:14:16.760 --> 00:14:19.720 policy programs. We were on the ground with early educators 280 00:14:20.240 --> 00:14:22.400 ready in the system for investment to make sure policy 281 00:14:22.440 --> 00:14:26.240 change would stick. So increasing capacity, creating economies of scale, 282 00:14:26.280 --> 00:14:29.360 doing shared services, substitute pools, right, like all that. So 283 00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:33.560 that's that was our secret sauce, right, And it didn't click, 284 00:14:33.640 --> 00:14:36.440 I would say until we started talking about the economics. 285 00:14:36.800 --> 00:14:38.520 I hate to say it, right, like this is good 286 00:14:38.960 --> 00:14:41.520 for humans, it's good for kids. But until we made 287 00:14:41.560 --> 00:14:44.800 the cold, hard capitalist case, and not just we business 288 00:14:44.920 --> 00:14:49.400 leaders in Vermont said, can't do this. We cannot function 289 00:14:49.520 --> 00:14:52.080 if we don't have a workforce. Childcare is the biggest barrier. 290 00:14:52.240 --> 00:14:54.200 It behooves us to be a part of this. They 291 00:14:54.280 --> 00:14:57.240 made the economic case that this pays for itself immediately 292 00:14:57.280 --> 00:15:00.000 and three times over. And so we actually passed lash 293 00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:02.440 year in Vermont next seventy six, the most expansive childcare 294 00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:04.680 bill in the country. It's working. We're one year in 295 00:15:05.640 --> 00:15:10.200 one thousand new spaces, thirty nine new childcare homes, especially 296 00:15:10.200 --> 00:15:13.560 in rural places, way despertently educators, going up seven thousand 297 00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:17.800 more Verma families eligible for tuition assistance by October. Right, 298 00:15:17.880 --> 00:15:21.120 it's absolutely working. And what do we do. We created 299 00:15:21.160 --> 00:15:23.840 a payroll tax a point four to four percent payroll 300 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:26.320 tax zero point four to four less than half a 301 00:15:26.320 --> 00:15:29.280 percent of a payroll tax seventy five percent employer twenty 302 00:15:29.280 --> 00:15:31.360 five percent employee. The employer can pick up the whole 303 00:15:31.360 --> 00:15:35.280 thing if they want, and many are. And it basically 304 00:15:35.280 --> 00:15:37.320 puts one hundred and twenty five million dollars of new 305 00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:39.960 money into the childcare system to do the things I 306 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:40.480 just mentioned. 307 00:15:42.640 --> 00:15:45.240 There is a lot to unpack about this, so let's 308 00:15:45.600 --> 00:15:46.840 let's talk about it. 309 00:15:46.920 --> 00:15:49.520 So I think the first thing, so, first of. 310 00:15:49.520 --> 00:15:52.680 All, this is amazing. I think it's incredibly cool and 311 00:15:52.840 --> 00:15:57.680 really really important. Plate the thing you said which feels 312 00:15:58.720 --> 00:16:02.320 really important to discuss in this, to sort of put 313 00:16:02.360 --> 00:16:05.560 on the table in this conversation is this costs money. 314 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:09.720 That the problem here is I really like this framing 315 00:16:09.960 --> 00:16:12.240 around sort of like how would you think about public 316 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:15.760 school Like, we have public schools which are financed by 317 00:16:15.800 --> 00:16:19.880 the government because there is not a system whereby everyone 318 00:16:19.920 --> 00:16:23.200 would be able to pay their portion of the school. 319 00:16:23.320 --> 00:16:26.680 You know, that's just not where we are. This is 320 00:16:26.680 --> 00:16:27.400 also like that. 321 00:16:27.520 --> 00:16:29.240 So I think sometimes it's easy to be like, well, 322 00:16:29.280 --> 00:16:31.920 why can't people just get together and like pull all 323 00:16:31.960 --> 00:16:32.840 their money and pay. 324 00:16:33.400 --> 00:16:34.200 That's not going to work. 325 00:16:34.240 --> 00:16:36.000 And we know that doesn't work because it doesn't work 326 00:16:36.040 --> 00:16:39.120 with schooling. And this is actually a more expensive thing 327 00:16:39.160 --> 00:16:42.880 because the kids are you need a higher faculty student ratio. 328 00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:46.160 So just the initial recognition that in order to make 329 00:16:46.200 --> 00:16:49.160 this work, we do have to subsidize it. 330 00:16:50.400 --> 00:16:50.800 Period. 331 00:16:50.960 --> 00:16:54.400 Yes, and in fact, many other countries I noticed do 332 00:16:54.920 --> 00:16:58.040 have heavy subsidies for this, the same way they do 333 00:16:58.200 --> 00:17:01.880 for schools. So I think so I think in some 334 00:17:01.920 --> 00:17:04.560 ways like that's that's almost the whole answer, which is 335 00:17:04.600 --> 00:17:06.760 just the question is like people need to be ready 336 00:17:06.800 --> 00:17:08.399 to accept that this cost money, and then we need 337 00:17:08.440 --> 00:17:10.520 to figure out like how are we going to get. 338 00:17:10.480 --> 00:17:12.960 The money into. 339 00:17:12.080 --> 00:17:13.920 The system, and what's the way that you know, what's 340 00:17:13.960 --> 00:17:16.920 the way to get people to understand that that's important 341 00:17:16.960 --> 00:17:19.119 to recognize the importance of this. But there isn't some 342 00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:21.520 secret option. Is sometimes we say here like there's no 343 00:17:21.600 --> 00:17:24.000 secret option. See like there's no secret option. See it 344 00:17:24.040 --> 00:17:25.240 costs money, bing go. 345 00:17:25.760 --> 00:17:28.160 And I will say, what's interesting. You'll hear me preaching 346 00:17:28.160 --> 00:17:30.639 this up and down the seaboard here right, Like I 347 00:17:31.240 --> 00:17:33.280 think my role these days is someone who's done this 348 00:17:33.359 --> 00:17:35.639 now in Vermont. You know, as we're moving towards this 349 00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:39.280 is to say, hey, folks, I hope we can agree. 350 00:17:39.520 --> 00:17:42.199 If we agree, like we you should hear folks are 351 00:17:42.200 --> 00:17:45.560 getting together on childcare on early ChIL education across this 352 00:17:45.720 --> 00:17:48.320 nation all the time. People understand because of COVID, I 353 00:17:48.359 --> 00:17:51.960 would say what you just mentioned, people now understand, like, WHOA, 354 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:53.800 why is this so different from K through twelve? Why 355 00:17:53.800 --> 00:17:56.640 did when we close down for COVID, no question about 356 00:17:56.720 --> 00:17:58.800 K through twelve and money kept flowing to teachers and 357 00:17:58.920 --> 00:18:01.600 zero to five AILSEN was in a total chaotic disarray 358 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:04.120 when it was actually the most essential backbone to keep 359 00:18:04.119 --> 00:18:06.679 our economy going, their essential workers where they needed to be. 360 00:18:07.280 --> 00:18:09.359 So there's this new awareness, and so people all getting 361 00:18:09.359 --> 00:18:10.720 together and saying we got to do this, we gotta 362 00:18:10.720 --> 00:18:13.800 do this, and everyone agrees it's infostential, it's infrastructure, and 363 00:18:13.800 --> 00:18:16.120 it's a market failure. And I don't hear anyone talking 364 00:18:16.080 --> 00:18:18.440 about public investment. So basically I'm just there as a 365 00:18:18.440 --> 00:18:21.240 broken record saying, hey, folks, I hope we can agree 366 00:18:21.800 --> 00:18:24.840 that on all these things equals public investment. 367 00:18:36.080 --> 00:18:40.480 More parent data, including pushback against Ali's campaign and how 368 00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:43.840 she's handled it, advice for reaching across the political aisle, 369 00:18:44.400 --> 00:18:46.920 and a call to action for you after the break, 370 00:19:09.040 --> 00:19:10.359 I want to talk about some of the pieces of 371 00:19:10.400 --> 00:19:12.320 pushback because I think in some ways what you're saying 372 00:19:12.359 --> 00:19:13.199 is very straightforward. 373 00:19:13.520 --> 00:19:16.600 And once you have money. 374 00:19:15.760 --> 00:19:18.840 There are it is not that complicated to think about 375 00:19:18.840 --> 00:19:19.679 how to su spend it. 376 00:19:19.720 --> 00:19:20.960 I mean, that's not easy. 377 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:24.280 It's many things on the ground, but ultimately, once. 378 00:19:24.119 --> 00:19:25.520 There's money, there's money. 379 00:19:25.560 --> 00:19:27.480 So talk a little bit about the kinds of things 380 00:19:27.480 --> 00:19:31.159 people would push back on here. So one concern is 381 00:19:31.480 --> 00:19:35.560 that I have heard is that when we have expansions 382 00:19:35.600 --> 00:19:38.679 of childcare, the quality is that good. So if you 383 00:19:38.680 --> 00:19:40.879 guys thought about the question of like, how do we 384 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:46.080 maintain quality childcare when we are expanding in a meaningful way? 385 00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:50.200 Absolutely, and you mentioned other places around the world, and 386 00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:53.040 you know, we're up north in Vermont and Quebec is 387 00:19:53.080 --> 00:19:55.080 our neighbor. And you know, although a lot of people 388 00:19:55.160 --> 00:19:57.600 don't seem to want to hear about what Canada does, 389 00:19:57.640 --> 00:20:01.840 it's very like the Vermont legislature is very instructive. You know, 390 00:20:02.040 --> 00:20:04.840 they did literally what we did. They added money, expanded 391 00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:07.600 it made it more affordable for families. They didn't think 392 00:20:07.640 --> 00:20:10.199 about quality. It didn't work. They said, oops, they went back, 393 00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:14.040 they thought about quality, and now they have subsidized high 394 00:20:14.080 --> 00:20:16.720 quality childcare, just like we're moving towards in Vermont and 395 00:20:16.960 --> 00:20:20.040 guess what female you know, particially before the skyrocketing, their 396 00:20:20.119 --> 00:20:22.399 their gross provincial product is going up. So we have 397 00:20:22.600 --> 00:20:25.639 again really like good examples to show this isn't some 398 00:20:26.280 --> 00:20:29.280 like zany theory. This is one hundred percent tried and 399 00:20:29.359 --> 00:20:32.200 true and the path is you know, well trodden and 400 00:20:32.600 --> 00:20:34.320 the outcomes are well researched. 401 00:20:34.320 --> 00:20:37.160