Wednesday, Congress will begin voting on a spending bill that includes investments in early childhood education.

For years Child Care Aware® of America has shared one message: affordable, high quality child care matters. It matters for children and it matters for families.

On Monday, November 4, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General released a report on the monitoring of licensed child care providers. The findings, while displaying the dire state of child care licensing standards nationwide, are not surprising.

Child care is unaffordable for many families. The costs leave children in questionable environments that can have long-term consequences for them and for our nation’s future.

Today I joined First Lady Michelle Obama, Sesame Street and many coalition partners at the White House to continue the mission to end the childhood obesity epidemic. Let’s Move! and Sesame Workshop are partnering with the produce industry to use Elmo, Cookie Monster and Sesame Street’s other furry characters free of charge to help market fruits and veggies to children. Elmo and Rosita joined the First Lady to talk about how important healthy options are.

"Many families are priced out of licensed child care services… the health and safety of those children are at risk." –Lynette Fraga  CNN Money

Raising a child will cost families more than $240,000 before a child’s 18th birthday an August 2013 US Department of Agriculture report showed.

The second biggest expense in that $240,000? Child care and education – not including college.

Child care is one of the biggest costs to raising children

Between 1960 and 2012, child care and education expenses went from 2 percent of the cost to raise a child, to 18 percent. Child care and education takes up a bigger chunk of the pie than healthcare and food. Child care and education is the second biggest expense behind housing.

Families are forced to make tough choices as the cost of child care continues to rise and wages stay the same or go down. But there is an even bigger unknown than child care costs. What is the quality of the child care program?

Quality child care too expensive for some

We know many parents turn to unlicensed child care settings because licensed care can be more expensive. Unlicensed programs are not required to meet basic state health and safety standards. Their providers are not required to complete a comprehensive background check and their buildings are not required to be regularly inspected. That leaves children to chance.

Quality requires Accountability

In the United States, nearly 11 million children under age 5 are in child care each week and although child care costs are high, most states have inadequate requirements for the quality of care. Currently, the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), which provides funds to states to help make child care more affordable for families, does not require that funds be used to pay for licensed care.

Child Care Aware® of America is pushing for the passage of the CCDBG reauthorization, that would raise the standards for quality child care in this nation.

The costs to raise a child are high. But the risk of unlicensed child care is even higher.