How much do we value our youngest children? If we look at the numbers, the answer is uncomfortable. Children under five experience the highest poverty rates of any age group, yet public investment in their care and education remains the lowest.
At the very moment when families earn the least and face the highest costs of raising children, they are asked to shoulder some of the highest childcare expenses.
Connecticut has taken an important step toward changing that reality. Last year, the state passed landmark legislation —Public Act No. 25-93— creating the Early Childhood Education Endowment. Its vision is bold: to build a publicly funded system that ensures broad access to affordable early care and education. Through the “Early Start CT” program, the state aims to provide free care for families earning under $100,000 and cap costs at 7% of income for others by July 1, 2027.
This is the kind of policy shift advocates have long pushed for, and Connecticut has rightly been recognized as a leader alongside states like New York, New Mexico, and Vermont for taking steps to transform childcare affordability. But leadership is not defined by legislation alone —it is defined by implementation. And implementation, if it is to succeed, must be grounded in equity.
Because without equity, even the most promising systems can reproduce the very disparities they aim to solve. The choices made now will either narrow opportunity gaps—or widen them.
The Early Childhood Education Endowment creates a pathway toward a more accessible and sustainable system—but only if the state follows through with consistent and sufficient funding.
The initial $300 million investment signaled real commitment. Yet projections of significantly smaller contributions in subsequent years raise concerns about whether that commitment will be held. For families already struggling to access care, inconsistency doesn’t just slow progress —it creates instability that hits those most vulnerable the hardest.
The inequities we see today are not accidental. They are the result of longstanding policy choices. Connecticut has long treated K–12 education as a public good, investing more than $20,000 per child annually. But for younger children, the investment drops dramatically —to just a fraction of that amount for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. This gap has real consequences, limiting access, suppressing educator wages, and reinforcing disparities across income and race.
If Connecticut is serious about transforming early childhood education, it cannot simply expand access —it must do so equitably, and the state doesn’t have to look far for an example, with Hartford being the first city to implement a comprehensive Early Childhood Blueprint to improve conditions for young children and families.
Equitable design can mean using funding formulas that prioritize communities with the greatest need, rather than distributing resources based solely on population. It means tracking enrollment and access in real time by income, race, and geography to ensure that expansion is reaching those historically left out. It means preventing the creation of waitlists, service deserts, or uneven quality across regions—outcomes that too often emerge when systems grow without intentional equity safeguards.
We’ve seen what happens when equity is not built in from the start. Programs intended to be universal can end up benefiting those with more resources, more information, and more access to navigate the system. Early childhood cannot follow that path.
An equitable system also requires stability. Boom-and-bust funding cycles disproportionately harm low-income families, who are more likely to depend on public programs and less able to absorb disruptions. Sustained, predictable investment is not just a fiscal issue—it is an equity issue.
Connecticut faces many competing challenges, from housing affordability to food insecurity to health care access. But it is not a state without resources. The question is not whether we can afford to invest in early childhood—it is whether we are willing to prioritize it, especially for those who stand to benefit the most.
The choices made now will shape opportunity for an entire generation. With intentional, equity-driven implementation, Connecticut has the chance to build a system that truly works for all families—and set a national standard for what that looks like.
But that outcome is not guaranteed. It depends on whether equity remains at the center of the effort—not just in vision, but in action.
William Johnson of Hamden is the Director of Educational Strategy and Program at the
William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund.
