Across New Jersey today, too many families are living an impossible reality.

Picture two hardworking parents — maybe a police officer and a teacher — who serve their community with pride but struggle to afford the child care that’s crucial to doing their jobs.

Or consider the single mother who worked hard to get a middle-class job — only to discover that her income still isn’t enough to afford child care, even though it’s above the level that qualifies for a New Jersey child care subsidy.

These cases aren’t rare. For many New Jersey families, child care costs – which average about $20,000 a year – are higher than their mortgage or in-state college tuition. Federal guidelines say families shouldn’t spend more than 7% of their income on care. But in New Jersey, many spend closer to 20%.

If you think that’s a big problem for families, you’re right. And it’s too big for most families to solve on their own. It’s really a problem for all of us. When parents can’t afford reliable child care, they reduce hours, turn down promotions, or leave the workforce. Employers lose skilled people. Businesses lose productivity. New Jersey’s economy suffers to the tune of $3.6 billion lost every year.

The problem isn’t caused by overpaid childcare staff. Far from it: Most make out a living on little more than the minimum wage and rely on public safety nets to survive. Rising operational expenses – insurance, for example – coupled with staffing levels needed to maintain safe, developmentally appropriate staff-to-child ratios are the main drivers of high costs.

Start Strong NJ — a growing coalition of parents, educators, businesses, nonprofits, and other concerned New Jerseyans – is united behind such proposed reforms as:

• Enact paid family leave policies that give parents real breathing room
• Create employer partnerships that treat child care as a business necessity
• Make sure state tax credits reflect the true cost of care.
• Increase public investment in the state Child Care Assistance Program to expand eligibility and make affordable, high-quality child care
• Make accessible to more families.
• Establish professional wages for child care educators.

You can view Start Strong NJ’s compelling video here.

New Jersey has already shown what’s possible when we make common-sense investments in the state’s young children. Our state’s preK program is a national model, benefiting thousands of 3- and 4-year-olds.

But it’s shortsighted to stop there. Infants and toddlers — the most underfunded yet most critical group for brain development — remain left behind. If we want our investments to matter, they must start at or before birth. Doing so will save money years into the future, in education, social services, criminal justice, and many other areas.

Professional child care isn’t babysitting. High-quality early childhood education lays the foundation for our youngest residents to thrive socially, emotionally, and developmentally, setting them on a path to become productive adults while their parents work toward personal and professional success. Think of it as essential infrastructure, just like roads, bridges, schools, broadband, power lines, and many other things we invest in as a society for the well-being of communities and the state’s economic health.

In this election year, we’ve heard the word “affordability” a lot from candidates as they tried to relate to life in our state. The question for New Jersey’s next governor isn’t whether we as a state can afford to invest what it takes for all families that need child care to have it. The question is how we can possibly be a thriving, prosperous state if we don’t.

For New Jersey to have a stronger economy, stronger communities, and a stronger future for our children — then we need all our children to start strong. That’s not optional – it’s urgent.