One of the casualties of the coronavirus pandemic is the way working families experience child care in Montana. That’s not entirely a bad thing. America’s child care economy is fundamentally broken, with the average child care worker able to qualify for food stamps in all 50 states.

Child Care Resources’ director recently estimated that about 30% of providers have closed statewide. This trend is the opposite of the home-based programs opening through MyVillage, the Bozeman-based startup I co-founded. March marked our biggest month yet in helping women educators start independent, high quality home-based programs across Montana and Colorado.

By Erica Mackey