Threat of child care cliff looms in California

Why it matters: Child care is getting so pricey in California that parents have been forced to quit their jobs, turn down opportunities or stop working to stay home with their kids.

• Many local parents spend hundreds of dollars per week on child care.

What's happening: Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-San Diego) and other Democrats co-sponsored and introduced the Child Care Stabilization Act in both chambers earlier this month, an effort to extend federal pandemic relief money.

• If passed, the measure would invest $16 billion per year in state grants for the next five years.
• Yes, but: With no Republican support, the bill faces an uphill battle in Congress.

The big picture: Without more federal investment, more than 84,400 kids are likely to lose care across California, as more than 13,500 programs are expected to close, per a recent report by The Century Foundation.

Zoom in: "We know that most child care providers are women and women of color, and so it helps support that workforce," Jacobs said at the press conference Saturday, NBC 7 reports.

What they're saying: "In San Diego, it's already incredibly hard to find and afford child care, but allowing this crucial funding to expire would worsen the already-dire crisis and hurt women the most," Jacobs said in a statement.

What's next: The impact of the fall off the cliff will take time to develop. "It takes a while to bleed out," said Cathy Creighton, director of Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations Buffalo Co-Lab, who's studying the impact of the additional funding for providers.