Publications

During a Business Leader Roundtable hosted by ExCEL NC, the Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina and the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce, participants emphasized that child care is not simply a family issue – it is essential economic infrastructure directly affecting employers’ ability to recruit and retain workers.

Workforce challenges exacerbate child care access issues for families with child care subsidies and private paying families. Given these challenges and the economic stakes for North Carolina, a deliberate, phased approach to aligning child care subsidy payments with the true cost of care is both necessary and strategic.

The childcare crisis hits rural areas where I live particularly painfully, turning a family struggle into a major economic barrier. At an Ashe County summit, a healthcare HR director noted that the lack of reliable care “routinely” forces talented recruits to cut hours or abandon the workforce entirely.