Putting politics aside, there were two messages in particular that struck close to home for me in Tuesday’s State of the Union. I especially liked the following:

“It’s time we stopped treating childcare as a side issue, or a women’s issue, and treat it like the national economic priority that it is for all of us.”

White House Nannies can help only a limited number of families find childcare, but I have always been conscious of the greater need for better access to affordable and quality childcare for all families, no matter whether they are inside or outside our service sphere. Here’s what a dream come true would look like: In addition to the increased tax relief for families with children that the President mentioned in the speech, I love the idea of making community college free so that, among other things, those people interested in making childcare a career could get trained and earn an Associate’s degree in child development. And I’m not just talking about recent high school grads taking advantage of this opportunity.

There is a whole pool of people who work in the childcare field who can’t afford to go to college and who would benefit from a free two-year degree certifying their expertise and experience. The benefit is two-fold. More people might enter the field if given the opportunity to earn credentials and parents hiring these childcare providers would be assured that the people taking care of their children have professional training. As it stands, there is no uniform set of standards to help parents figure out what their caregivers know or don’t know. This free community college proposal reminds me of the old NNEB (National Nursery Education Board) certification in England—a free two-year certification. Every time we met a nanny with that credential we knew we had found someone with meaningful, practical training. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could have the equivalent here?