Child care costs, accessibility and quality represent a critical challenge for families across America.  And an existential threat to a recovering economy, generally reliant on both parents working to sustain themselves and their families.  With federal supports given to this industry during the pandemic that have recently expired, early childhood centers–daycare, early learning and the like–have been shuttering their doors.  They cannot find workers, pay them adequately or train them as well as is needed to nourish these young minds.  It is so much so a problem that Democrats have been joined by Republicans on the federal and state levels to address it and business associations as well as labor unions are supportive of measures to find public dollars to keep places and spaces open for children in need.  Even vaunted Head Start is serving only a small percentage of the children who are eligible for it.  Let’s first understand the problem and then offer some solutions.  With us to do that is Laura Mutrie, Director of Field Education and Clinical Assistant Professor in the MSW program at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut.