Protected: Private Equity and Child Care –

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.

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.