Following her testimony at the Senate Finance Committee’s hearing on “Examining the State of Child Care,” Katharine Stevens answered Senators’ questions on four key childcare policy topics.

Federal policymakers should aim to: 1) Boost choice for low-income parents. 2) Shore up family childcare. 3) Break down bureaucratic silos to amplify impact of current funding. 4) Leverage a broader range of federal funds. 5) Promote state leadership in early care and education.

Large proportions of the nation’s most vulnerable children lack access to high-quality child care. Instead of pushing a big government expansion of child care, that is the emergency we should urgently be aiming to address.

We must find new ways to promote and leverage growing state commitment to early childhood, to incentivize state innovation, and to highlight strategies and activities of currently leading states.