Rise identified access to child care as a 2022-2023 policy priority and has joined the Alliance for Quality Education (AQE), other community groups and child care providers in organizing to pass legislation to fund universal child care in New York State. Here, Stevie Vargas, AQE’s Upstate Campaign Coordinator, discusses the campaign for universal child care and what AQE heard from parents and providers during their 10-week statewide child care tour. She also explains what the proposed legislation will accomplish, why it is essential to end means testing, and how child care is an issue of racial, economic, gender and labor justice.

I am a single mom and it is only my son and I living together. That means that, unless he is in school or at camp, wherever I go, he goes, too—even when I have to go to the hospital. 

blems and when I end up in the hospital, it’s not always during school hours. There are lots of reasons why I would need to bring my son with me to the hospital, such as if I’m having seizures or sudden severe pain, and these things do not happen on a schedule.