Child Care Cannot Keep Being an Afterthought in Mississippi
- Zakiya Summers
- 24 minutes ago
- 2 min read
All session long, House and Senate Democrats have been fighting for one of the most basic building blocks of a functioning economy: child care. Despite the urgency, despite the data, and despite the real-life consequences playing out across our state, child care has not been prioritized.
We have now seen firsthand the devastating impact of the Child Care Payment Program (CCPP) pause by the Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS):
Providers have laid off staff
Classrooms have closed
Some centers have shut their doors entirely
Families have lost access to care
Parents have been forced to leave the workforce
This is not just a child care crisis. It is a workforce crisis. It is an economic crisis.
As outlined in my letter to appropriations leaders, over 40% of providers report parents quitting their jobs after losing access to child care, and 75% of children who lost CCPP assistance exited care altogether. That means fewer people working, fewer businesses able to operate at full capacity, and a shrinking infrastructure that we will struggle to rebuild.
We did not sit back and accept this. We fought. We supported legislation that would have required MDHS to use unobligated TANF funds to stabilize child care. We offered an amendment on the House floor to make that happen—only to see it tabled.
We advocated for additional appropriations to the Department of Human Services. We sent a formal request to conference negotiators asking for a $60 million investment in CCPP—the exact amount MDHS leadership said was needed to eliminate the waiting list and restore access. When the conference report came back without that funding, we made a motion to send it back—specifically to add resources for child care. That motion failed.
Let me be clear: this was a choice. This Legislature has appropriated millions of dollars for a range of priorities this session. However, when it came to child care—the very thing that allows parents to work and businesses to function—we were told no.
The consequences of that decision will be felt in households struggling to make ends meet, employers unable to find workers, providers closing permanently, and communities losing critical infrastructure.
Child care is not a luxury. It is economic infrastructure. If we are serious about workforce development, about economic growth, about supporting families—then we must be serious about investing in child care. Mississippi cannot afford to fall behind because we failed to act on something so fundamental.
I remain committed to continuing this fight—because working families, small businesses, and our entire state economy are depending on it.
