COVID-19 has highlighted how healthy child development, families, and our economy depend on high quality child care — and decent work for early childhood educators. And over the past several months, as child care centres have opened back up, there has been significant discussions about health and safety.

In an op-ed in the Ottawa Citizen,  Alana Powell (Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario) and Carolyn Ferns (Ontario Coalition for Better Childcare) make the case that we can’t “talk about the wellbeing of children without talking about the wellbeing of the early childhood workforce.” For too long, early childhood educators have been paid low wages and faced challenging working conditions. They’re calling on the federal governments to provide funding for child care and a child care workforce strategy that prioritizes decent work and pay.

Read the whole op-ed here.