As Colorado’s early childhood leaders discuss how to spend a new $41 million pot of federal coronavirus relief money, there are lots of unsettled questions about who needs the money most.

Imagine, for a moment, a future when the coronavirus pandemic is at last behind us. Stores are reopening, people are leaving their homes and workers are returning to their jobs. However, because Congress did not provide for the thousands of child-care providers across the country that desperately needed assistance, the vast majority have been forced to close their doors forever.

Let’s use COVID-19 as a wake up call that teachers and child care professionals are the backbone of our economy.

Dominated by small businesses, the country’s child care “system” has long been at a breaking point. Child care is expensive to operate and to provide, yet families are largely left to pay for it themselves while providers eke out a living on meager profits.

“We are on our own”: How the coronavirus pandemic is hurting child care workers

There are about 400 child care services open with the state's permission to care for children while their parents are at work.

Child care programs across the country are ‘afraid to stay open and afraid to close,’ caught between fear of the coronavirus and fear of financial ruin.

The state has promised a massive bailout to Vermont’s child care providers to stabilize the sector amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The closure of child care centers due to COVID-19 has forced a profound reckoning about the state of the American child care system.