Asked by reporters how soon he would like the department closed, President Donald Trump responded: “Oh, I’d like it to be closed immediately. The Department of Education is a big con-job.”

Advocates in Illinois are pushing for higher wages and better benefits in an effort to retain child care workers. The effort comes after a center in Bronzeville recently shut its doors, the CEO says, due to a lack of staff. 

A report from the Century Foundation shows that without pandemic-era federal funding, thousands of providers would no longer be able to hire and pay staff, meaning rapid shutdowns in families with small children fending for themselves.

As parents begin returning to the office amid the coronavirus pandemic, a glaring problem awaits them: child care. And for many Illinois families, COVID-19 made an already difficult situation even worse.