Miami Herald

Mario Cardona knows child care is critical. He’s currently chief of policy and practice at Child Care Aware of America, a nonprofit that helps families access care. In his former role as a congressional staffer, he wrote and led staff negotiations to pass the Child Care & Development Block Grant Act of 2014, which comprehensively updated the quality and standards in federally subsidized childcare for the first time in years. We checked in with Cardona and asked him to take the pulse of child care in the U.S. today.