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Well, Americans are struggling under the weight of child care costs, prices for tuition, other school fees and child care. Guess what, it rose a tenth of a percent in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and it's up 3.6% from last year. We see a similar story with daycare and preschool prices. Although flat last month, they are up 5.4% from last year. Joining me now on set to discuss, we've got Reshma Saujani, who is the founder and CEO of Moms First. Moms First is a non-profit that advocates for policies to support working women. Great to have you here with us in studio.

Great to be here.

So let's discuss this, especially as we're thinking about the state of childcare costs for households right now and where we're still seeing some of those price pressures really impact the household budget.

Yeah, well, listen, I mean parents have always been in crisis when it comes to the cost of childcare. 55% of parents are in debt because of the cost of childcare. That is, if you're going to find it. You know, we're sitting here in New York City, every single burrow in New York City is a childcare desert, right? And so most women, in particular, have to choose between like funding their daycare and feeding their babies, which is unconscionable. And so parents are desperate to not be priced out of parenthood and to, you know, implore upon leaders to reduce the cost of childcare. And we are at Moms First have been really working to kind of build that voice, put the pressure on politicians to actually do something about it.

What have you found in in your own discussions that you've been having that the research, as well, that's been carried out that is keeping the costs so high?

Well, I mean, it's just fundamentally expensive, right? The business model of childcare is broken, right? And even the way, I think regulation is a big issue. For example, in in New York, you have to have a childcare center on the bottom floor. Even though kids live in high rises, doesn't make sense and makes it incredibly expensive. We are not paying childcare workers enough at all. You know, most of them are barely making a living wage. And so when it comes to, like again, the business model of childcare, it's broken. So somebody has to provide the subsidy. Is it going to be businesses, because workers can't work without childcare? Or is it going to be the government? Or is it going to be both? And I would say it should be yes and.

And so with that in mind, we've often seen to your point, many businesses try to figure out as a talent acquisition or retention strategy, how they can lessen the load for some parents. Are those tactics and strategies that many businesses have put forward, are they still applicable? Where do they need to also improve and perhaps go a little bit further?

I mean, we just need more. I mean we have a at Moms First, we have a National Business Coalition on Childcare, over 200 businesses. We took 80 of them to Washington a few weeks ago to kind of lobby Congress to do more in the tax bill. For example, on 45F CDCTC, the CDCTC. And so I think businesses have to continue to provide the subsidy, if if government isn't going to get it done, if government is going to continue to leave behind parents, then businesses need to step up. In addition to that, businesses have to become advocates for policy, right? Like we have to make childcare affordable, period. You know, last September, I got a commitment from President Trump that he was going to make childcare affordable. His viewpoint on this was that once I put in place tariffs, the cost of childcare will go down. We just saw, that's not happening, right? The CPI index today said the cost of childcare is increasing, while inflation is staying flat. So this administration is not making good on their promises to working families to reduce the costs.