Unemployment has topped 7% nationally and economists predict it will approach 10% by 2010. Child care programs experience a trickle-down effect: when businesses cut back hours or lay people off, parents cut back child care hours or pull children from programs. "We're seeing more and more families lose their child care assistance and have nowhere to turn for help," reports a center director from Massachusetts who is worried about how to stay afloat. The Early Care and Education Consortium, an alliance of America's leading national, regional, and independent providers of quality early childhood programs that the author directs, has been compiling stories from across the country to help educate leaders in Washington and in state capitols about of the tough choices parents are forced to make and the further impact the downturn is having on children and families. The 111th Congress and the Obama Administration are in a position to make important changes in the child care and early learning field, and what they do will have long-term implications for people involved in the industry. The author encourages people to be involved by sending their stories about what's working and what's needed for the child care industry to the Early Care and Education Consortium. (Contains 2 endnotes.)