Recognizing care as a public good and investing in it as such—funded with public dollars to meet demand and available to all who need it—are among the most effective ways to confront the nation’s long history of racial and economic inequity.

Ensuring care as a public good is a necessary step toward liberation

An economy centered on care supports families’ ability to thrive and is essential to the society we must build. Dr. Martin Luther King envisioned a “beloved community” grounded in living wages, decent housing, quality education, the freedom to live in peace, and health care. But his vision reached beyond material provision to something deeper: dignity, agency, compassion, and the liberation that comes when people no longer want for basic needs. Ensuring care as a public good is a necessary step toward that liberation—and toward fulfilling our nation’s promise and full potential. 

Key Takeaways From the Full Brief

  • Care work—spanning early childhood education, home- and community-based services, and support for older adults and people with disabilities—is the backbone of our social infrastructure. High-quality care allows people to learn, heal, connect, and age with dignity.1
  • Despite its universal importance, care in the United States has long been treated as a personal responsibility rather than a collective commitment. Families are expected to shoulder staggering costs, perform the work themselves, or simply do without.
  • Care workers are underpaid, overworked, and often unable to meet their own care needs.
  • Our care policies, which do not meet the care needs of working families nor adequately protect care workers, are rooted in a long history of racial and gender inequity.
  • These inequities continue to shape today’s care economy. Women and workers of color provide essential care but receive low wages and experience high rates of turnover.
  • Due to a history of systemic racism and extractive practices in the private care sector, working families, especially in Black and brown communities, are left to provide it themselves and experience worsened health outcomes and disrupted employment as a result.
  • We can do better. By recognizing care as a public good and investing in it as such—making it available, accessible, and affordable to all who need it—we can ensure that care jobs are good jobs and that children, older adults, and people with disabilities receive the care that they need.
  • Even as the Trump Administration tries to dismantle our current care systems with cuts to Medicaid funding for home- and community-based services and efforts to freeze other funding sources that subsidize child care, there are bright spots on the horizon.2 Several state and local governments are already demonstrating how expanding care services, empowering care workers, and funding care work sustainably can begin to reimagine systems so that they work for everyone.

Read the full Policy Brief