Yves here. I don’t see how non-affluent families with two working parents and school aged kids coped with school closures. Some local groups stepped up and provided some childcare, but I have to think it was on a first come, first served basis, and I am not sure it continued once non-essential business closure order went into effect. This article makes a strong-form argument that investment in early and childcare need to be important parts of Covid-19 spending, not just to preserve jobs but more important, as an investment.
By Eileen Appelbaum, the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and co-author of Unfinished Business: Paid Family Leave in California and the Future of U.S. Work-Family Policy. Produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute
