The good news is that there has already been a lot of interest in understanding the dynamics of D.C's child care market. OSSE is trying to find ways to help local providers increase their quality of care, and is looking into how it can realign reimbursement rates for infants and toddlers at gold-tier centers. However, for these methods to fully and meaningfully address the costs of quality care for both parents and providers would require a staggering public investment. And as quality child care is increasingly seen as a necessity for very young children's development (as well as for parents' labor force participation), we may decide that this investment is worthwhile. But instead of approaching that point through piecemeal measures, it's a good time to step back from simply subsidizing the current system and have larger conversations about child care in the District: What are our goals for parents, for children, for child care workers? What is (and isn't) working in similar cities? What would an ideal system look like? (author abstract)