California's child early care and education (ECE) system is underfunded, and California policymakers have not been willing to acknowledge the true cost of creating a comprehensive ECE system. Proposals for ECE reform have focused primarily on improving access and affordability for families but have ignored the elephant in the room: Early care and education is substantially "funded" through low teacher pay and inadequate supports for ECE teachers. In addition to being a serious injustice, lack of adequate financial and professional supports for ECE teachers compromises the consistency and quality of care children receive. In this report, the authors develop an estimate of what it would cost to provide high-quality and comprehensive early care and education for California's families that doesn't overburden them financially or come at the expense of ECE teachers. This paper makes the case for aligning the costs of the ECE system with what is required to create a strong and sustainable system. Herein, the authors model a system to meet the needs of all families in California and solve the myriad problems the current system fails to address.