Abortion rights, women of color, and LGBTQIA+ people are under attack. Pledge to join us in fighting for gender justice.
Private equity moves into Colo. child care
Earlier this summer, the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) and Open Markets Institute, a nonprofit that lobbies against corporate monopolies, published a report on the risks of private equity investment in the child care sector and held a conference discussing the issue. Among their concerns are potential impacts on child safety and the stability of care.
“The question is whether an investor-backed business model — and in the case of private equity, a heavily financialized model focused on short-term profit — is the appropriate model for something that is a public good,” said Melissa Boteach, co-author of the report and vice president of child care.
[…]
Three large private-equity-owned child care groups — KinderCare, Bright Horizons and Learning Care Group — operate in Colorado, according to Boteach. Together, they own approximately 70 daycare or education facilities.
Industry watchdogs worry that further private equity investment will exacerbate an already untenable situation.
As the NWLC and Open Markets noted in their report, “Families’ extreme need for child care, while in a shortage market, leaves them vulnerable to providers who maximize their prices.”
[…]
“The problem,” NWLC’s Boteach says, “is that private equity firms have a traditional playbook, whereby the firms collect the profits and pass the risk and liabilities back to the companies they’ve taken over.”
[…]
“With the influx of possible public funding,” NWLC report author Boteach said, “external investors should have guardrails in place to protect the child care industry and the families they serve.”
