PBS News Hour Will Air Week Long Series Focused on Child Care July 12-16

PBS Newshour recently announced they will air a week long series on child care from July 12-16. To watch it, you can find your local PBS station here, or stream it on the PBS NewsHour YouTube channel. Below is an overview of the week from the PBS Newshour Promotional tool kit:

“The PBS NewsHour has produced an upcoming week-long series on child care in the United States. It is anticipated that infants and toddlers and the particular needs/challenges in providing access to affordable, high quality care for them will be woven throughout the series. The series is scheduled to run in five segments over the course of the week of July 12th.

Each segment will have a specific focus that will be covered in a 7-10 minute package:

• Segment 1 (Oregon): The first “scene setter” segment of the series examines America’s dramatically changed child care landscape as the country emerges from the pandemic and what’s at stake in this critical moment. Weaving together interviews with national experts, and compelling personal stories from families and providers in Oregon, the report goes beyond the headlines to reveal long-standing inequities and problems with America’s patchwork child care system. The report also looks back at historical touchpoints that have impacted public policy and investment in early care and education for decades.

• Segment 2 (Mississippi): The NewsHour team travels on to Mississippi where the lack of affordable, quality child care has long been a significant hurdle for working families, especially low-income single mothers. Using the story of one mother who has experienced significant child care challenges, the report looks at why government child care assistance has been difficult for parents to access in Mississippi and around the country. The reporters then visit an innovative program in Biloxi which has been transforming the lives of single mothers by providing job training and free, easy-to-access child care.

• Segment 3 (Nebraska): In the absence of a universal child care system, some communities around the country have been trying to figure out how to address child care shortages which are impacting local economies. In this segment, the NewsHour team visits a small community where residents took action and created one of the country’s few infant and toddler programs owned and operated by a public school district. The team then travels to another Nebraska town where community and business leaders have developed financial incentives to increase the number of child care slots.

• Segment 4 (Fort Belvoir, Virginia): As Congress contemplates a major new role for the federal government in child care, some experts say they should look to the military child care system which has been called a “model for the nation.” In this report, the NewsHour team visits Fort Belvoir in Virginia where service members can access affordable, quality child care and providers earn fair wages and benefits. And, in one of the more compelling moments in the series, the head of child care policy for the military, reveals her family’s own struggles with child care.

• Segment 5 (Around the Country): In the final report of the series, the NewsHour team looks at the key question confronting the country and political leaders: What now? Should the country move toward long-term child care reform? Hearing from average Americans and national thought leaders, the report explores some of the policies now being considered and brings to light some of the many views about how we might move forward. “