Since December, South Carolina has stopped accepting new applications and renewals for its Working Families' Childcare Scholarship Program, and the fallout is already visible in communities across the state. At The Learning Station in Horry County, the share of children whose care is funded by these scholarships has fallen from 68% to 34%, and the center expects about 50 more families to lose their assistance before December.

For families who don't qualify for the state's narrower protected categories, weekly bills can leap from single digits to several hundred dollars overnight. Parents are being forced into impossible choices: working opposite shifts just to trade off childcare, leaning on relatives, hunting for remote jobs, or leaving the workforce altogether.

"Every single family is scrambling; they're all trying to figure out what their best next step is, how they're going to make it work," said Jacob Jensen, executive director of The Learning Station, according to WBTW.

Donna Jensen, the center's owner, said plainly, according to WBTW: "Child care is still critical, and child care is still essential. High-quality care and high quality shouldn't just be for wealthy people; it should be for everyone."

She's right. Childcare isn't a luxury reserved for families in crisis, it's the infrastructure that lets parents across every income level go to work. The South Carolina Department of Social Services and the South Carolina General Assembly have the power to reopen this program and fund it before more families lose their footing.

Sign this petition to demand South Carolina restore and fund the Working Families' Childcare Scholarship Program now, before another family is forced to choose between their job and their kids.