Sara Mauskopf
Sara Mauskopf is the co-founder and CEO of Winnie. She’s also the mom of three young children and vocal advocate for high quality child care and early education for all.
Child care now costs more than public college tuition in 38 states. Yet the federal government's primary tool to help families afford it, known as the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, hasn't been meaningfully updated for more than two decades. The credit only recognizes $3,000 to $6,000 in child care expenses, even though care now costs on average $15,000 a year nationally. In other words, the tax code still assumes child care costs a fraction of what families actually pay.
What I see every day running Winnie is that families are struggling to find child care they can afford. And when families can't afford care, it is disproportionately mothers who exit the workforce.
That's not an opinion. It's a pattern that has repeated itself for decades and it is costing American businesses dearly.
This Is an Everyone Problem, Not Just a Family Problem
When the child care system fails families, employers feel it too. Staffing shortages, reduced productivity, unexpected absences and talent attrition are all downstream effects of a broken child care infrastructure.
The ripple effects reach every industry. When a skilled employee, disproportionately a mother, reduces her hours or leaves the workforce entirely because child care costs make working economically irrational, that's not just a loss for her family. It's a loss for her employer, her industry and the broader economy.
How the U.S. Has Tried to Solve the Child Care Problem
Historically we have pointed to employers to solve this issue by offering onsite childcare. But running a child care program is not a core competency for most businesses. It requires early childhood expertise, regulatory compliance, real estate, and a workforce of trained educators. Then there’s the cost. Building a typical child care center can cost millions of dollars, depending on location and size.
The government has also tried to address the problem through a patchwork of programs: subsidies for low-income families, public pre-K offered in some states, temporary stabilization funding during the pandemic, and employer incentives. These programs help some families, but they leave the majority of working parents navigating the market on their own. Eligibility thresholds are strict, funding is limited, and the system is difficult to navigate.
A Clear, Concrete Ask
The fix doesn't require starting from scratch. The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit already exists. It just needs to be updated to reflect economic reality.
Raising the eligible expense cap to reflect what care actually costs today would meaningfully change the calculus for millions of households weighing whether they can afford child care. A tax credit designed decades ago simply cannot support families navigating a 2026 child care market.
Updating the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit should be an easy place to start. This isn't a new government program or a complicated system to build. It doesn’t change based on your city of residence or go away when you get a raise at work. It's a straightforward update to an existing policy so it reflects the cost of care in today's economy rather than the economy of the early 1980s.
The policy fight is ongoing, but parents have a voice in it. If this issue resonates with you, forward this post to a friend and contact your representatives and tell them you support expanding the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit.
