The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the early care and education system, especially for providers, educators, families, and children. With prospects of transformative investments from the federal level unclear (at best) at this point, it’s easy to feel we’re sliding back to the dysfunctional status quo that defined our field before the pandemic – or worse. But our collective experience, painful as it has been, also points to new possibilities and opportunities that can take us to a more ambitious future – if we can build political will for it.