Letters to the Editor: Child care in California is expensive enough. Will we allow it to get even worse?

To the editor: Californians won’t allow political games to jeopardize the care of our children. I commend the attorney general for filing this lawsuit to prevent any further harm (“California sues Trump administration over ‘baseless and cruel’ freezing of child-care funds,” Jan. 8).

A blanket funding freeze for blue states doesn’t punish one political party — it punishes the millions of real children, families and child-care providers who will pay the price. According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, child care already takes up about one-fifth of a median family’s income in California. With our state’s high cost of living, do we really expect them to shoulder any more sudden costs without dire consequences?

There are existing mechanisms for accountability for public funds, and child-care providers are already burdened with high operational costs. This freeze will deprive children of care during their most important years of development, eroding the foundation for their success.

If our country’s leaders truly cared for working families and their children, they would make things easier for them, not withhold essential funding.

Stacy Lee, Los Angeles
This writer is chief learning officer and senior managing director, early childhood, at children’s advocacy organization Children Now.