Children Before Profits State Playbook & Report
The Children Before Profits State Playbook is a joint project of Community Change, National Women’s Law Center, Open Markets Institute, and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund. It equips 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.
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 [Full Report] [Executive Summary]. 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.
Report contact: stienon@openmarketsinstitute.org
MODEL STATE LEGISLATION [PDF], including language to:
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.
Contact: ndastur@communitychange.org
BACKGROUNDERS:
Understanding Private Equity [PDF]: Learn more about how private equity has shaped other essential services.
Children Before Profits Report (2024) [Full Report] [Executive Summary ][VIDEO]: Review the tactics private equity has used to maximize profits in child care, and the impact on child care as a public good.
Case Studies:
Contact: aroyce@nwlc.org, smarton@nwlc.org
CAMPAIGN RESOURCES:
Planning a Private Equity in Childcare Campaign Roadmap [PDF]: 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 Deck [PDF]: 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 [PDF] and Campaign Guide [PDF], which can serve as scripts for the presentation.
Talking Points [PDF]: A set of points for sharing the risks and solutions concerning private equity in child care with policymakers, journalists, and neighbors.
Rebuttals [PDF]: 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.
Contact: For help analyzing child care private equity in your state or locality contact: hibba@ourfinancialsecurity.org
We are grateful to the Care for All with Respect and Equity (CARE) Fund for their support for this project.