Long before “childcare” became a public concern, it was an economic necessity, met by the labor of enslaved and later impoverished Black women.
Black women cared for white children while being denied the right and opportunity to care for their own. When the government crafted social safety nets under the New Deal, Black women were intentionally excluded from the economic protections that shaped the American middle class. During the New Deal era, landmark labor protections—including Social Security, minimum wage laws, and the right to unionize—excluded domestic and agricultural workers.
This was no oversight. These were acts of legislative design driven by racial animus and economic convenience; a deliberate compromise with Southern lawmakers seeking to preserve racial hierarchies. These exclusions forced Black women into low-wage, unprotected labor, particularly as caregivers. As such, America’s childcare system is not broken —it is operating exactly as it was designed: to privatize care, devalue the labor of Black women, and shift costs onto those least able to afford them, producing the fragmented, underfunded, and inequitable system we see today.
This year, Connecticut passed two landmark legislations —House Bill 5003 and Senate Bill 1— that commit over $300 million to early childhood education. These bills aim to establish a permanent funding stream to expand access, stabilize providers, and support families with subsidies and capped co-payments. These are transformative steps in the right direction.
However, as Connecticut enters a new era of early child care education reform and public investment, we must ask: “What would it mean to repair the harm done to Black women within a reimagined early child care education system?” I believe Connecticut can offer a model for reparative investments.
To do so, Connecticut must adopt a restorative justice lens and approach in reforming its early childcare education system —one that explicitly acknowledges past injustices and centers Black women in policy design as leaders and owners, not just as laborers. Connecticut’s restorative justice measures must encompass more than expanded access, aspirations for equity, and community listening sessions. It must recognize that racialized policies and legislation systematically excluded Black women from wealth-building opportunities and intentionally relegated them to underpaid care work. It must acknowledge that the legacy of these policies has entrenched Black women in low-wage childcare roles while creating barriers to ownership and decision-making. Restorative justice would require nothing less than honoring Black women’s role as America’s first institutional childcare providers, preserving their ownership stake in the system they built, and creating space for them to lead its rebirth.
As Connecticut positions itself to reimagine and reform its early childhood education system, it must resist universal rollout without racial equity safeguards. The risk of not embedding and implementing reparative measures is not only inefficiency, but also the perpetuation of the very inequities this funding seeks to address. Restorative justice demands that implementation be oriented towards those historically harmed, and who continue to be most affected by the legacy of racialized legislation. That success is measured not just by the number of slots created within and for communities of color, but by who benefits and how they benefit.
While this may be controversial, especially in the age of President Trump, this is not about preference or “DEI” (the way it’s prejoratively and erroneously used) —instead, it’s rooted in the principle of repair. Far from being a novel or fringe concept, restorative justice is already embedded in Connecticut’s public policy. The state’s marijuana legalization framework embedded restorative justice by expunging certain low-level past cannabis convictions, reserving half of all new licenses for social equity applicants, and steering tax revenue into communities harmed by the War on Drugs through its Social Equity Fund.
A similar approach would seek to center Black women as leaders, designers, and owners within Connecticut’s reimagined early childhood education system, which is not just restorative—it is imperative. The childcare industry in Connecticut stands on the brink of significant expansion, presenting what I believe is a generational transfer of opportunity. Yet without intentional policies, legislation, or pathways to leadership and ownership for Black women, we risk replicating the injustice of the past—this time masked as progress.
Connecticut has an opportunity to develop an early childhood education system that reflects our highest values. A system that does more than serve children and families. One that repairs, restores, and reckons with its origins. Restorative justice means that Black women, who built the early childhood education system through sacrifice and exclusion, are now recognized as its rightful leaders and stewards. For centuries, Black women have been entrusted with the care of America’s children. It is time to entrust them with the resources, respect, and power to lead this industry.
Restorative justice is not just a moral imperative—it is a policy necessity. Because a society that repairs what it has broken can truly nurture every child. In Connecticut and across the nation, we must deign to build not only a better early childhood education system, but a reparative and just one.
Georgia Goldburn is Co-founder of CERCLE/New Haven.