This Playbook is designed to equip state and local organizers, advocates, and policymakers with practical tools to address the risks posed by the growing role of private equity in U.S. child care markets.
Across the country, families, workers, and community leaders are fighting to build a child care system that treats care as a public good – one that is universal, affordable, and high-quality, and supported by a well-paid, stable workforce. This vision of child care is within reach, but it is increasingly threatened by profit-first private equity acquisitions in the child care industry.
A joint project of Community Change, National Women’s Law Center, Open Markets Institute, and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund.
Report
Download the report, “Children Before Profits in the States: Empowering Communities to Constrain Private Equity Profiteering in Local Child Care Markets”
Model Legislation
Model legislation for states to apprehend the role of corporate and private equity ownership in the child care sector and establish reasonable conditions on the receipt of publicly-funded child care assistance and other subsidies in the child care sector, and align state registration and reporting requirements to reflect these goals.
Background & Resources
Click below for backgrounders on understanding private equity, state case studies, and strategies to help you with your own campaign.
Private equity has a long and unfortunate track record of acquiring essential community services –
such as housing and health care – only to cut costs, degrade job and care quality, and weaken relationships with workers, families, and suppliers in pursuit of higher returns. Growing evidence shows the same pattern emerging in child care, particularly as states increase public investment in care services.
Eight of the ten largest child care companies in the U.S. are now owned by private equity, and in states like New Jersey, two-thirds of for-profit child care chains with three or more locations are private-equity-owned.
The good news is that the power to curb private equity’s takeover of child care lies largely with state and local leaders, organizations, and communities.
The following Playbook is designed as a practical resource for both newcomers to this fight and experienced advocates working in child care and other sectors.
Report
Children Before Profits in the States: Empowering Communities to Constrain Private Equity Profiteering in Local Child Care Markets
This report describes opportunities for state and local actors to:
- Strengthen guardrails that protect families and workers;
- Maintain fair and competitive child care markets;
- Equitably increase the supply of child care by supporting alternatives to private equity; and
- Build public power for greater corporate accountability.
State Model Legislation
State Model Legislation, including language to:
- Increase public reporting about the make-up and performance of local child care markets.
- Increase transparency about private equity involvement in child care programs;
- Place guardrails in public funding contracts with providers;
- Ensure compliance with these rules; and
- Increase public reporting about the make-up and performance of local child care markets.
Resources
Talking Points
A set of points for sharing the risks and solutions concerning private equity in child care with policymakers, journalists, and neighbors.
Rebuttals
Private equity tends to make a common set of arguments in defense of its extractive financial model. Here are some facts worth sharing in response.
For help analyzing child care private equity in your state or locality contact: hibba@ourfinancialsecurity.org
Planning a Private Equity in Childcare Campaign Guide
An overview of steps to take to start a campaign around private equity in child care in your state or city, with examples of corporate campaigns, legislative approaches, and winning executive or regulatory action. Includes a reading list and links to campaign resources.
PE in Childcare Training Doc
This template slide deck can be modified to prepare an educational presentation for your organization or membership base if you are thinking about starting a private equity in childcare campaign. It draws from materials in the Backgrounder and Campaign Guide, which can serve as scripts for the presentation.
Backgrounders
Understanding Private Equity
Learn more about how private equity has shaped other essential services.
New Mexico Case Study
New Mexico’s Experience with Private Equity in Child Care
Massachusetts Case Study
Massachusetts Advocates Confront Private Equity in Child Care
Colorado Case Study
Colorado Advocates Confront Private Equity in Child Care
Vermont Case Study
Vermont Advocates Confront Private Equity in Child Care