The COVID-19 pandemic brought chaos and devastation to our nation’s child care system, and with it, the lives of children, families, providers, and early childhood educators. As many have said, the challenges experienced in families and communities were not caused by the pandemic. They are a direct result of poor policy and investment choices our country has been making for decades – choices that reflect our nation’s racist and sexist beliefs about the worth of early care and education, who should do this work, and whose responsibility it is to secure child care that is responsive to the needs of young children and their families. It is no surprise that the impacts of the pandemic fell disproportionately on providers, educators, families, and children in communities that have been marginalized because of their racial and/or economic background.
If our policy choices created the vulnerabilities and inequities we witnessed in the child care system during the pandemic, we can undo them and put in place stronger policies and systems. To do that, we cannot continue to tinker around the edges and settle for marginal improvements. We need to mount sustained advocacy campaigns that demand a more ambitious and bolder future.
Child Care NEXT is funding collaborative state advocacy communities that are taking this on.
Child Care NEXT is supporting states so they can:
Child Care NEXT Updates:
Virginia advocates have have turned the Child Care NEXT principles and support into a string of wins for children, including, in the 2024 session, an historic commitment by the governor and legislature that means $1.1 billion will be available for child care services for low to moderate income families over the next two years.
Since the Child Care NEXT initiative cohort was announced in the summer of 2021, state coalitions have been making foundational progress on their coalitions and transformation plans. This work is about building a large, durable constituency for child care in a state, so much of the early work is on building a coalition infrastructure that aligns with the core principles and collective power milestones of the initiative.
As state teams convened for a cohort gathering and workshop this spring, many were already reporting significant progress in laying the groundwork for such a grassroots constituency for child care.
A key component of the Child Care NEXT model is ensuring the coalition is unified on a collaboratively developed bold vision for transformation. State Child Care NEXT coalitions have made significant progress here, and their clear visions for transformative change have come into focus.
