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Tune in today: PBS NewsHour is launching a five-part series called “Raising the Future: America’s Child Care Dilemma.”

“The struggle to find affordable, quality child care has always been one of the biggest issues for American families and Covid-19 only exacerbated the problem,” a press release says.

“This series examines the current state of the American child care system, its history, and the new movement for long-term reform in the post-Covid era.”

The series will look at the “fractured child care system and its impact on women, children, people of color and the economy.”

Here in Boston, the show airs at 6 p.m. on WGBH. Search here to find out when the show airs in your city, or watch the episodes online.

Here’s a rundown of the episodes that will all run this week:

Monday, July 12, 2021
Part 1 “examines America’s dramatically changed child care landscape as the country emerges from the pandemic and what’s at stake in this critical moment,” relying in part on interviews with families and providers in Oregon “to reveal long-standing inequities and problems with America’s patchwork child care system.”

Tuesday, July 13, 2021
Part 2 focuses on the lack of affordable, quality child care and its impact on working families. One highlight from Mississippi: “an innovative program in Biloxi which has been transforming the lives of single mothers by providing job training and free, easy-to-access child care.”

Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Part 3 looks at child care shortages and their impact on “local economies, including in Nebraska,” where residents of a small community “created one of the country’s few infant and toddler programs owned and operated by a public school district.”

Thursday, July 15, 2021
Part 4 explores how the United States military provides child care, focusing on Fort Belvoir in Virginia. “And, in one of the more compelling moments in the series, the head of child care policy for the military, reveals her family’s own struggles with child care.”

Friday, July 16, 2021
Part 5 focuses on “key questions confronting the country and political leaders: What now? Should the country move toward long-term child care reform?”

The program has support from the Pritzker Children’s Initiative and the Stein Early Childhood Development Fund at the California Community Foundation.

Please watch this important news series and share it with your personal and professional networks.