While life during the novel coronavirus pandemic has been easy for no one, it’s been especially challenging for people who are caretakers, whether that includes children, older folks in the home, disabled family members, or so on. Caretaking is chronically undervalued, underpaid, and frankly, is rarely even recognized on a social level as it should be. During COVID-19, many folks have had to make incredibly difficult and ever-shifting decisions about whether or not to send children to day care services in terms of safety. But that’s far from the only factor.

What else? As new data from the Economic Policy Institute affirms, day care is very, very expensive. How expensive? In more than 30 states, day care services for a 1-year-old cost more than in-state college tuition. Yes, you read that correctly. Yearly costs, for example, can look like more than $9,000 per year in Texas, more than $13,000 per year in Illinois, and more than $12,000 per year in Wisconsin. Now, think about paying for that on minimum wage, or if you have student or medical debt, or if you have a child with disabilities … Terrifying, unstable, and frankly, cruel. 

As also reported by Poynter, child care workers—perhaps ironically—struggle to afford the very services they provide for others. For example, the families of child care workers are twice as likely to live in poverty. In Texas, for example, a child care worker who makes minimum wage would need to work full time for several months to pay for child care for one baby. Even a child care worker who makes more than minimum wage would have to pay close to half of their earnings in order to put their child into services in order to work.

This system is not sustainable.

In Kansas, for example, child care costs are estimated to take up one-third of a woman’s entire salary. In speaking to local outlet KMBC about that number, Wendy Doyle, who serves as United Women’s Empowerment president and CEO, said that some families pay more for child care than their monthly mortgage payment.

“It’s really putting families in a position to have to choose between work and family,” Doyle told the outlet. 

As another example, in Colorado, care services for an infant cost close to 10% more than the average rent. If a family has two children receiving child care, they’re likely to spend about 14% of their entire yearly income on said care. That’s about double what the Department of Health and Human Services considers affordable, according to Colorado News Online. 

Now, child care workers have always been underpaid and undervalued, but it’s also safe to say costs have gone up during the pandemic. As reported by Fortune, care providers at centers for 3 and 4 year olds have gone up by 57%, while comparable centers for children under 2 have gone up by more than one-third. Care providers for 3 and  year olds in Georgia, Louisiana, and Florida saw the biggest increase, moving up by 144%. Put another way, the annual costs of center-based child care before the pandemic averaged around $9,977 per year. Now, they’re about $14,000.

Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, the Child and Dependent Care Credit will allow eligible taxpayers to claim up to $4,000 in child expenses for one dependent (and up to $8,000 for two dependents) this year, as reported by Time. 

What else? Some cities and states are trying to give bonuses and incentives to child care workers to thank them for the priceless labor they’ve provided during the pandemic—and to hopefully keep them from quitting, which would only add to the scarcity and potentially up prices even more.

As an example, Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C. recently gifted a child care center (Kiddie University) with a $10 million grant to go toward operating costs and to help parents who otherwise can’t afford their services. The D.C. government is also letting child care workers apply for bonuses between $10,000 and $14,000, depending on job and education. 

“I think it’s so good to feel appreciated,” Asia Boulware, who works at Kiddie University, told local outlet WJLA, adding that she and her peers work really hard. ”A lot of other women in child-care deserve that money, really badly.”

If we don’t want care providers and educators to simply quit or retire early, we need to give them the financial and social support they need to do their jobs. And stop the pointless Republican hysteria about book burning and kids playing sports, because all of that tension is only making it harder for people to teach and care for young people. 

Add your name to The National Women Law Center’s petition: Tell Congress to invest in high-quality, affordable child care for all.