Mother’s Day Matters: Shaping Futures with Investments in Early Childhood Education
For many moms, Mother’s Day is an annual opportunity to be pampered with breakfast in bed or to receive flowers paired with precariously assembled macaroni art crafted by our children, but amid these celebrations of love and gratitude for moms, it is important to make note of the support that mothers, parents and guardians still need, and often lack, all year round: access to high-quality early childhood education (ECE).
Despite this immense challenge, the looming threat of cuts to essential and effective federal programs like Head Start is poised to exacerbate further this already pervasive gap in our system.
Each of us are leaders at Reinvestment Fund, a Philadelphia and Atlanta-based Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) working nationally, and mothers ourselves. We have, in our own professional and personal journeys, experienced how crucial reliable, quality childcare is to a family’s well-being, a child’s long-term success, and a community’s economic health. For working parents, ECE is an essential piece of community infrastructure that requires sustained, thoughtful public investment to function and grow, not drastic cuts.
Today, early learning providers are plagued by a landscape that actively hinders their success. They face an ongoing workforce crisis, while families face skyrocketing tuition costs that have far outpaced their wage growth. This perfect storm is compounded by the fact that it is objectively expensive to provide high-quality ECE, due to factors like high adult-to-child ratios necessary to keep younger children safe, and that the sector lacks the type of dedicated tax revenue that supports K-12 education. For example, across Pennsylvania, the average per student spending in public schools is over $20,000, and all children can access free public education. While some families can access free Head Start programs, and cities including Philadelphia, Washington DC, and San Antonio have stepped up spending and programming for pre-k, limited subsidies for 0-3 mean that parents are often responsible for the whole cost of care, especially for infants and toddlers.
Christina Szczepanski, Sara Vernon Sterman and Emily Dowdall are leaders at Reinvestment Fund, and mothers. For working parents, ECE is an essential piece of community infrastructure that requires sustained, thoughtful public investment to function and grow.
In addition to these challenges, many childcare providers are small businesses, and as a group they have been failed by traditional financing mechanisms. Across communities, this has translated into widespread gaps in access, especially in low-income and historically underserved neighborhoods across the US. But there are ways that we can work together to address the needs of the industry and the families, who rely on it. With the right policies and resources, we can stabilize and strengthen this essential sector.
At Reinvestment Fund, we have developed a holistic approach—combining flexible capital with data-driven tools and programs to support the providers and communities who need help the most. Through years of partnership, we’ve seen providers like Pee Wee Prep Educational Center, Magic Years, and Kinder Academy grow their capacity and scale their operations after receiving ECE grants and business assistance from Reinvestment Fund. When additional capital is required to meet new opportunities or challenges, we are able to step in again with flexible financing solutions, helping them expand their reach and impact. Tools like Childcare Map provide analytics that help inform these operators’ business strategies, and ensure they are meeting the evolving needs of their communities.
We work with childcare providers every day who are deeply committed to serving their communities but face significant operational barriers.
Meanwhile, for more than ten years Childcare Map has helped funders and policymakers address access gaps in Philadelphia. In 2024, more than half of the city’s 3,000 new high-quality seats were added in predominantly Black and Hispanic communities, including Germantown, North Philadelphia, and Cobbs Creek. It’s a reminder that intentional investment works to address persistent gaps in access to necessary services.
Much of Philadelphia’s ECE expansion has been aided by the philanthropic sector, which has stepped in where public funds are limited, but foundation dollars alone will never be sufficient. We need increased and sustained funding for early childhood programs—not just in times of crisis, but as a long-term commitment to the economic and social vitality of our communities. We also need to foster more robust public-private partnerships to bring innovative, sustainable childcare solutions to scale.
Leaders in our communities have a profound opportunity and responsibility to shape the future of early childhood education.
High-quality childcare directly supports labor force participation and ensures the next generation is ready to learn and succeed. For every dollar invested in ECE, the return on social and economic benefits is substantial. Researchers estimate that investing in high-quality ECE can generate as much as a 13% return through improved health, economic outcomes, and social cohesion.
Leaders in our communities have a profound opportunity and responsibility to shape the future of early childhood education. This Mother’s Day, it is imperative that we all hold our civic leaders accountable to move beyond symbolic gestures and to commit to real, structural solutions. That means:
- Expanding subsidies to make care affordable for more families
- Providing resources to increase compensation, benefits, and professional development support for childcare professionals
- Directing private and philanthropic capital to help providers grow and modernize
- Prioritizing childcare infrastructure in economic development plans
- Preserving federal programs like Head Start so the unmet need doesn’t drastically increase.
Childcare has and will always be foundational to family stability, economic opportunity, and workforce resilience. A thriving ECE system strengthens communities from the ground up, but it cannot thrive without intentional public investment.
We can’t ask families or providers to bear this burden alone and the cost of inaction is far too high. Let’s honor caregivers and fortify our economy this Mother’s Day not just with words, but with policies and aligned investments that value their essential role and build a better future for every child.
The time for us to act is now.