An article in today’s New York Times, “Aid for Child Care Drops When It Is Needed Most,” highlights one of the most important problems for all working moms – without high-quality, affordable child care, it’s difficult to work at all, and it’s impossible to devote the time and energy that’s required to turn a job into a meaningful career.

In the research report the Working Mother Research Institute published recently, What Moms Choose, we investigated the factors women consider when they decide whether, where, when and how to return to work after having children. Of the respondents who did not return to work, but who nonetheless consider themselves “career-oriented,” 35 percent cited the cost of child care as one of the three top reasons they stayed home.

Several of the other factors these moms called out as reasons they hadn’t re-entered the workforce are related:

-26 percent said they wouldn’t earn enough to justify the cost of working

-44 percent said the needs of their children kept them at home

-9 percent said a lack of high-quality child care contributed to their decision.

According to the Times, states are now cutting government subsidies for child care for low-income families as part of the attempt to whittle down their budgets. As a result, fewer families are eligible for the subsidies and those that are have to pay higher copayments, just as demand is growing for the benefit because of the slow rebound of employment numbers. Arizona and Utah have both stopped appropriating any state funds for child care subsidies.

Waiting lists for subsidized care in states that still offer it have thousands of children on them, and those kids are being shuttled between grandparents, siblings, neighbors and friends when their parents go to work, rather than being safely held in a clean, warm, consistent environment where they can focus on learning and development.

Without trustworthy and affordable child care, how can low-income parents make it to work every day, on time, and devote the energy necessary to excel and advance? Should good child care be a priority for state governments that want to get their citizens back to work?