The childcare system in the US needs fixing. Here’s what lawmakers should do.

Childcare

Childcare is a public good that all of us benefit from, whether or not we have young children. Yet, our nation’s current situation is truly concerning.

Too many families cannot find or afford childcare. Nearly half a million families are estimated to be stranded without reliable childcare, exacerbating the nation’s worker shortage as parents continue staying home.

The annual cost of infant childcare now exceeds the average cost of in-state tuition at public colleges in 31 states.

Early childhood educators are being paid poverty-level wages and too often struggle just to support their own families. Childcare workers must be paid a living wage.

Our elected leaders cannot say they support families if they do not support childcare and universal pre-K. We must create a childcare system that meets the needs of children, families, communities and educators.

Raquel Thomas, Durham

US senators

With confirmation of Judge Jackson being a given, one would think U.S. senators would have seized the opportunity to show us that they are still a deliberative body and can rise above the inanities we’ve come to expect from the House. Instead, they chose to pander to the minority of Americans who feel they need something to be afraid of or aggrieved about.

U.S. senators are paid $147,000 for what we laughingly call public “service” — far more than the average American. Surely they must have goals greater than getting re-elected? More aspirational than “stopping those other guys who are trying to ruin our country”? More mature than “yes, it was a cheap shot, but they did it first.”

Bottom line, no spin please: Why are you there?

John Marlow, Raleigh

Republican Party

What is going on in the Republican Party? It seems every week there are changes towards negativity and the refusal towards cooperating for the “good of the people.”

Their rude questions to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson appalled me more than their statements and comments concerning other recent events. Who do these senators think they are?

They should be ashamed of themselves, but are too egotistical to do so. We the people need senators who display fairness, decency and honesty. We must all elect people who have these characteristics.

Andree Zelko, Raleigh

Abortion

Regarding “NC’s Robinson says wife’s 1989 abortion was ‘wrong’ decision,” (March 25):

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson says he and his wife are now pro-life. What they learned from the decision to get an abortion has apparently shaped their political views. So be it.

But that doesn’t mean he should try to force other women to agree with him. That decision belongs to a woman who must bear the bulk of the responsibility, no matter her choice. Her partner, family and faith all factor into this extremely personal choice.

In a show of support, former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker said Robinson allowed God to use this “for good, reminding us of God’s abundant grace.” Robinson and his party should extend that same grace to all women, just as his wife experienced.

Laura Stillman, Raleigh

Helping Ukraine

The U.S. Congress appropriated $1.3 billion in 1948 to assist western Europe in rebuilding countries after WWII. Known as the Marshall Plan, this amounts to about $115 billion in today’s dollars.

Democratic governments throughout the world should be called upon to share the responsibility of aiding these freedom-loving people in Ukraine whose country has been devastated by Putin.

We should ask the former president to chip in a few million. It was he who threatened to withhold strategic aid to this struggling democracy unless their president came up with some dirt on Biden and his son. Even today Donald Trump is constantly praising his old friend, Putin, most recently during his rally in Georgia. Has he no shame?

Thomas K. Spence Jr., Sanford

NC healthcare

Isn’t it interesting that in less than a month Poland has agreed to provide health care services for five years to Ukrainian refugees, but we in North Carolina — after more than a decade — have still not extended Medicaid to the poorest among us. What do the Poles know that we don’t?

William Erwin, Durham

This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 1:09 PM with the headline "The childcare system in the US needs fixing. Here’s what lawmakers should do.."