Video: Fox45 News featuring Debilyn Molineaux of The Bridge Alliance

Most parents are more than happy to receive a tax refund. That money can help pay bills, fund a long-overdue vacation, or simply offer breathing room. But for too many families, especially Black families, that refund is not extra. It too often becomes a temporary relief from a child care gap created by school systems that are no longer designed around the realities of working families.

Schools are supposed to be structured in a child’s best interest. In practice, hardships are built into an antiquated design. Seventy percent of Black parents work service-essential nine-to-five roles, yet schools dismiss in the early afternoon. Parents are left scrambling to find and pay for before- and after-school care, babysitters for holidays, teacher workdays, and full-time summer camps. Those gap hours and summer care costs average to about $400 to $500 per week. For many households, that equals an entire paycheck.