Affordable child care helped my family out of deep poverty. Can we save it?

Pamela Covington by Pamela M. Covington We need to fix our fraying safety net so other families get the same chance. On a good day in December 1983, I cooked Vienna sausages and grits on a borrowed kerosene heater that – in my poverty-stricken state – felt like another mouth to feed. Every day I had to buy fuel for it. I’d vowed to lift myself and two boys out of destitution as soon as I could, either by getting a job or returning to school. But a severe lack of resources, primarily child care for my toddler, made it nearly impossible to envision either. Our financial situation was far from secure compared to what it had been the year before. My partner and I both worked, and we enjoyed a comfortable life in a lovely neighborhood. However, his struggles with PTSD from his time in Vietnam led to unpredictable violent outbursts, prompting me to flee with the children for our safety. With no concrete plan, we ended up briefly homeless, relying on a moving truck and strangers for shelter before ending up in a tiny, unequipped unit in a dilapidated cement tenement. Sylvia, a friend at church, taught me...