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Private Equity and Child Care

On June 24th, 2024 from 9:30 AM – 4 PM ET Open Markets Institute, the National Women’s Law Center, and Community Change will host an event to examine the role of private equity in plundering the nation’s child care industry and services.

Speakers include the following, with more to be announced:

  • Virtual remarks, Sen. Elizabeth Warren – U.S. Senator (D-MA)
  • Rep. Sara Jacobs – U.S. Congresswoman (D-CA)
  • Rebecca Slaughter – FTC Commissioner
  • Dr. Kirabo Jackson, Member of the Council of Economic Advisers.

At the event, NWLC and Open Markets will release a new report outlining a policy strategy to guard the child care industry against financialization and corporate capture. As the consensus grows about the importance of increasing public funding for child care, the report will also examine in depth the risks associated with private equity capture of public dollars; the market structures preventing child care businesses from supplying sufficient affordable care to American communities; and the policy and market solutions it will take to build a child care system that centers children and families.

The event will also feature remarks from leading elected officials, advocates and organizers, regulators, and researchers on these topics, with a goal of providing a forum to educate a broad set of stakeholders, build momentum and attention for this issue, and facilitate relationships between stakeholders working in different parts of the movement.

Watch ‘Children Before Profits: Addressing Risks of Private Equity in the Child Care Industry’

AGENDA — June 24, 2024

Offered In-Person and Virtual (Livestream) 


9:30 AM ET Doors Open + Breakfast, Coffee


10:00 AM ET Welcome Remarks – Anna Wadia, Executive Director of the Caring for All with Respect and Equity (CARE) Fund 


10:15 AM ET Presentation of the paper – Melissa Boteach and Audrey Stienon

  • Q&A

10:45 AM ET Panel 1: The Vision of Child Care as a Public Good

  • Miriam Calderon, Chief Policy Officer at Zero to Three
  • Dr. Elizabeth Pufall Jones, Director of Preparation and Work Environment Programs at CSCCE,
  • Andrea Serrano, Executive Director at OLE
  • Dr. Kirabo Jackson, Member of the Council of Economic Advisers.
  • Moderated by Fatima Goss Graves, President and CEO at National Women’s Law Center

11:30 AM ET Break


11:45 AM ET Panel 2: The Threat of Private Equity: Lessons from Across the Economy

  • Eileen Applebaum, Co-Director at the Center for Economic and Policy Research,
  • Aliya Sabharwal, Private Equity Campaigns Manager, American’s for Financial Reform
  • Brendan Ballou, Author of Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America
  • Chris Noble, Policy Director, Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP)
  • Moderated by Dorian Warren, Co-Director of Community Change and Community Change Action

12:30 PM ET Lunch 


1:30 PM ET Remarks 

  • Video message: Senator Elizabeth Warren 

1:40 PM ET Panel 3: Aligning Market Incentives with the Vision

  • Rebecca Slaughter, FTC Commissioner
  • Daniel Nissenbaum, Chief Executive Officer of Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF)
  • Elizabeth Leiwant, Director of Government Relations at Neighborhood Villages
  • Chye-Ching Huang, Executive Director of the Tax Law Center at NYU Law
  • Moderated by Audrey Stienon, author of the Children Before Profits report, Industrial Policy Program Manager at Open Markets Institute

2:25 PM ET Break


2:35 PM ET Keynote Speaker

  • Congresswoman Sara Jacobs 

3:00 PM ET Panel 4: Building Countervailing Power: Stakeholders Holding Companies Accountable to the Vision

  • Cynthia Pinchback Hines, Racial Justice Educator and CO-OP Developer
  • Pedro Bortoto, Researcher at SEIU HCIIMK
  • Clarissa Doutherd, Executive Director of Parent Voices Oakland
  • Mackenzie Nicholson, Senior Director, New Hampshire at MomsRising
  • Alex Han, Executive Director of In These Times
  • Moderated by Melissa Boteach, author of the Children Before Profits report, ​​VP of Income Security and Child Care/ Early Learning at the National Women’s Law Center

4:00 PM ET Happy Hour


 

SPEAKERS


 

Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research

Eileen Applebaum

Author of Plunder and served as special counsel for private equity in the Justice Department

Brendan Ballou

Researcher, SEIU HCIIMK

Pedro Bortoto

Vice President for Income Security and Child Care/Early Learning, National Women's Law Center

Melissa Boteach

Chief Policy Officer, Zero to Three

Miriam Calderon

Executive Director, Parent Voices Oakland

Clarissa Douthred

President and CEO, National Women's Law Center

Fatima Goss Graves

Executive Director, In These Times

Alex Han

Executive Director, The Tax Law Center at NYU Law

Chye-Ching Huang

Member of the Council of Economic Advisers.

Dr. Kirabo Jackson

Director of Preparation of Preparation and Work Environment Programs, Center for the Study of Child Care Employment

Dr. Elizabeth Pufall Jones

Director of Government Relations, Neighborhood Villages

Elizabeth Leiwant

Executive Director, Open Markets Institute

Barry C. Lynn

Senior Director, New Hampshire at MomsRising

Mackenzie Nicholson

Policy Director, Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP)

Chris Noble

Racial Justice Educator and CO-OP Developer

Cynthia Pinchback Hines

Private Equity Campaigns Manager, Americans for Financial Reform

Aliya Sabharwal

Executive Director, OLE

Andrea Serrano

FTC Commissioner

Rebecca Slaughter

Program Manager, Industrial Policy at Open Markets Institute

Audrey Stienon

Co-President of Community Change, Co-Chair of the Economic Security Project

Dorian Warren

Executive Director, Caring for All with Respect and Equity (CARE) Fund

Anna Wadia