My husband and I waited nearly a decade into our marriage before starting a family — not because we didn’t want one, but because we knew raising children would demand more than we could afford at the time.
We have two kids now, and childcare for our youngest costs nearly $2,000 a month. That’s more than some families pay in rent, and far more than many working parents can reasonably shoulder.
During the pandemic, my husband was able to stay home with our daughter while going back to school full-time. He’s working full-time again, but still trying to complete his degree — now in year four of a two-year program.
My family’s story is not unique. It’s the reality of thousands of families across the San Diego and Imperial region. Because in today’s economy, the math simply doesn’t add up.
As we recognize National Family Caregivers Month, it’s important not just to honor the caregivers in our lives but to use their challenges to motivate us to build a system that can support them in return. Because caregiving isn’t just a family’s burden. It’s a workforce issue we cannot afford to ignore.
Millennials are now the largest share of the labor force, yet many of us are part of the “sandwich generation” — juggling raising children while also caring for aging parents. Carrying both responsibilities at once inevitably affects our productivity, stress levels and overall work–life balance.
At the San Diego & Imperial Center of Excellence, we analyze labor market data to better prepare the region’s workforce for the future. That research showed just how fragile our care system already was — and how the pandemic pushed it to the brink.
Across the region, childcare providers lost nearly 2,000 slots, and wages remain so low that many trained early childhood educators leave for higher-paying jobs in retail or hospitality. The result: families wait months for care they can barely afford, and parents — mostly women — are forced to leave the workforce.
The senior-care sector is confronting a strikingly similar crisis — one growing more urgent as our population ages. Another COE analysis estimated that about 70% of the region’s more than half-million seniors would need long-term care at some point, yet only about 29,000 licensed senior-care slots exist. That means roughly three out of five seniors could not access care, even if they needed it.
This gap also stems from a severe workforce shortage. Across the state, employers report needing 148,000 home health and personal care aides — a demand 50 times higher than projected a decade ago.
These findings raised important questions about caregiving’s impact on student success. So we surveyed about 600 adult learners aged 25 and older across our community college system. The answer was clear: student-caregivers carry heavier burdens and are more likely to pause or abandon their education because they cannot balance school, work and the round-the-clock responsibilities of caring for a loved one.
But their stories are more than just data points. They’re a blueprint for repairing a system that has long been failing families.
Community colleges are key to solving the caregiving crisis and strengthening the region’s workforce pipeline. Across the region, we already offer programs that support aspiring caregivers — from San Diego College of Continuing Education’s personal care assistant and free ESL classes for caregivers to the in-home daycare and small-business training previously offered at San Diego Miramar College and the Women’s Business Center at Southwestern College. Many of these programs are grant-funded and depend on consistent financial support; without it, they are paused or discontinued despite strong community demand.
Caregivers are central to our economy, our families and our communities. But they cannot continue carrying this burden alone. Caregivers are often paid below a living wage, so policies that ensure this workforce is supported, valued as a profession and compensated competitively are critical. If we want more students to succeed — and more of them to choose caregiving careers — we must start by addressing the barriers that make it so difficult for them to stay enrolled.
This National Family Caregivers Month, let’s show our appreciation by giving caregivers the support that they deserve. Our region’s future depends on it.
Dr. Tina Ngo Bartel is executive director of the San Diego & Imperial Center of Excellence, a nonprofit that uses research and professional development to advocate on behalf of employers and students’ needs.
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