[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - We're now joined by Reshma Saujani who's Founder and Chief Executive Officer of a great organization called Moms First.

Reshma, great to have you with us.

- Thank you, Steve, for having me.

- You got it.

This is part of our ongoing programming, trying to get folks to better understand the need for accessible, affordable, quality childcare.

Part of the first 1000 Days Policy Coalition, the graphic will come up.

What is your organization and how is it tied to this first 1000 Days Policy Coalition around childcare?

- Yeah, so Moms First is a national organization that's mobilizing America's 85 million moms for structural supports that are gonna help moms.

I spent a large part of my, you know, the past 10 years of my life building an organization called Girls Who Code to close the gender gap in computer science and technology.

And I saw firsthand that when we don't have a structure of care, when we don't have affordable childcare, when we don't have paid leave, there is no gender equality.

And so Moms First is working closely with the 1000 days coalition, including Burke Foundation, to really make sure that early access childcare is at the top of the agenda.

- Well, let me ask you, you mentioned Girls Who Code and connecting it to AI right now, how are you quote leveraging AI as it relates to your advocacy efforts around childcare?

- Yeah, so we've built a tool in partnership with OpenAI and my friend Sam Altman called Paidleave.ai.

We found that two out of five parents take advantage of paid leave.

- Because?

- They don't know it exists.

One, lack of awareness.

Two, it's really complicated.

You go on the government website and you're like, you don't know if you're eligible.

And most people don't have three hours to spend sitting on customer service trying to figure out whether they can access paid leave or not.

So they give up, right?

Which leaves a lot of dollars on the table.

$10,000, right.

Is as much as you can get in benefits that parents forego because they just don't have the time or they don't think that they're eligible.

- What's your advice to them, Reshma?

I mean, tell 'em right now, and by the way, the coalition's website's up right now.

Let's also put up Moms First so people can go to the Moms First first website.

- Thank you.

- What should people be doing when they're like, this is overwhelming to me.

- Go to Paidleave.ai.

And you'll very quickly know - - Paidleave.ai.

- [Reshma] Am I eligible?

How much money can I get?

And what are my next steps?

- A fair part of this Reshma, as you're talking about this is quote navigating the system.

Not easy.

- Not easy at all.

- And nor do people have time, not to mention partly because of childcare issues, but I'm curious about this.

How did you become so passionate about this cause?

- Because, you know, Steve, I've spent my whole life trying to elevate women and girls.

And in many ways Steve, I thought the problem was me.

I thought, well, if women had more confidence, if they got a mentor, if they got a sponsor, if I read this book, if I power pose before this conversation, that the problem is women.

And I realized during the pandemic, like I think a lot of mothers did, I think a lot of parents did, and was like, oh wait, I'm not the problem.

The system, the structure is a problem.

I'm set up to fail before I even had my cup of coffee.

- What do you mean, hold on, I'm set up to fail before the morning cup of coffee or whatever.

What is that?

What do you mean by that?

- What I mean by that is that 40% of parents are in debt because the cost of childcare.

What I mean by that is 50% of Americans live in childcare deserts.

And so most people in this country gotta work to put food on the table to pay for the diapers.

And I can't work without childcare, period.

But still as a country, many states, we refuse to fix the childcare crisis.

You know, we refuse to give people paid leave benefits.

So to me the what we need to do as a country, as a society, as an activist for women and girls is fix childcare, fix paid leave.

When we do that, we will give every working family the opportunity to march up into the middle class.

- Reshma, let me ask you this.

There are some who oppose paid family leave, who are resistant to paid family leave and many in policymaking positions in Washington and in the State House in New Jersey.

What do you say to them?

- I say you're wrong.

I say that if you care about the economy, you know, if you care about, quite frankly working families, you need to provide them structural supports and benefits that come.

- And pushback is the cost you say.

- Yeah, and I would say it pays for itself.

You know, there are plenty of studies that prove that out on paid leave and we just released a study on childcare.

You know, we did a study with businesses that showed that the ROI of providing childcare benefits is as high as 425%.

- How, how does that work?

How do you even get to that?

- Well, how it works is like when a company offers childcare benefits, people don't miss work, right?

They stay employed.

You don't have to replace your workers.

If the average, you know, the average amount of time where you replace a worker, I think is nine months.

If you provide them childcare benefits is as high as 23 months.

So you retain workers, which saves you money.

And let me talk about this from, I live in New York City and you know, and it is so expensive to raise a child, for example, in New York City.

I think 40% of parents that have children under the age of five just leave because you don't have a lot of options as a working parent.

You can either reduce your hours or drop out of the workforce or go into debt.

None of those are great.

And so what happens is people just leave the city.

And last year alone, because our city refused to fix childcare benefits, we lost $23 billion in revenue.

Like, it not only makes economic sense to provide paid leave and childcare, it's just dumb if you don't.

And so this is happening in cities, in states like New Jersey, across the country, working families are leaving.

They're going to places that are more affordable.

- I'm sorry for interrupting, Reshma.

In time we have, let me ask you this.

We're interviewing every candidate for governor in the state of New Jersey, New Jersey and Virginia, the only two states in the nation that have gubernatorial elections in the year after the presidential.

For the next governor of the state of New Jersey, after Governor Murphy leaves in January of 2026, what should be, in your view, their highest policy agenda as it relates to childcare?

What should it be?

- I think it should be like, what are you gonna do to fix it, period.

And gimme a concrete plan.

You know, what are the steps that you're gonna take?

What's the policy?

You know, I guess I'm a big believer in universal childcare.

I think the next governor, I've been pushing our governor here in New York to do something about it.

I've been pushing the mayoral candidates to come up with a plan.

But I think that if you can figure out a way, you know what I mean?

Just like we have with K-12 education to provide universal childcare to every single child.

You know what I mean?

That makes economic sense.

It's not just doing what's right for working families, but it makes economic sense and you're gonna see the payoffs.

Can I just say one thing, Steve?

- Sure, go ahead.

- We were the first nation to provide free K through 12 education.

And when we did it, people said, you're crazy.

Why would you invest all that money in educating your kids?

And we had a theory that if we did that we would become unstoppable.

America would be the most powerful country, the most educated country in the world.

And guess what?

That bore out to be true.

And so if you're gonna invest in K-12 education and make it free, why wouldn't you do the same thing from zero to six?

It just makes sense.

- Well said.

Reshma Saujani is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Moms First.

Their website has been up along with the first 1000 Days Policy Coalition, their website as well.

Reshma and other folks are part of that coalition.

Reshma, thank you so much for joining us.

We appreciate it.

- Thank you, Steve for having me.

- You got it, stay with us.

We'll be right back.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The Russell Berrie Foundation.

The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

Rowan University.

EJI, Excellence in Medicine Awards.

The North Ward Center.

The Adler Aphasia Center.

Valley Bank.

Johnson & Johnson.

And by PSE&G.

Promotional support provided by BestofNJ.com.

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- The EJI Excellence in Medicine Awards was established in 1939, shining a light on New Jersey's health care leaders.

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