In the last few years, bipartisanship has come to seem more like a practice from folklore than any political reality that would pass through legislative buildings today. So it means something when a body of elected officials in the U.S. votes unanimously to approve a bill.

And it meant something earlier this month when Maine’s state legislature voted 130 to 0 on a proposal to supplement the wages of child care workers.

That level of buy-in and support has become increasingly rare. But after two years of a pandemic that has raised awareness about the challenges of child care workers, and also heightened those challenges, many Americans have a better grasp of just how valuable—and yet undervalued—early childhood educators are. That goes for policymakers, too.

Pandemic relief funding helped assuage some of the burden on the field, allowing child care programs—which, in many cases, are privately operated small businesses—to remain open, and giving providers a little extra money with which to boost the pay of its staff. But it was no panacea. Relief funds, such as those allocated from President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, have an expiration date. It is not something child care providers or workers can count on indefinitely.

Many in the field, along with advocates, parents and the general public, were looking to Biden’s Build Back Better plan to provide a more permanent solution. The bill contains a number of provisions that would improve conditions for the early childhood field and workforce, including setting a higher minimum wage for those who work in child care settings (the median wage nationally is around $11.65 per hour). It would also alleviate some of the financial burden on the part of parents, who are in some cases paying more per month for child care than they spend on housing.