Why Funders Are Rallying Behind Some Unusual Suspects Advocating for Early Childcare

Council for a Strong America: The name conjures images of tanks and bald eagles — not so much playgrounds and childcare centers. Nor is the organization’s membership — cops, military brass, and business executives — usually associated with issues impacting young children. Still, it’s a link that the Council for a Strong America has forged for several decades. And since the pandemic trained a spotlight on the U.S. child care crisis, the organization’s approach seems increasingly timely and on-point.

The Council for a Strong America is fueled by the conviction that the best way to fight crime and create a stronger country is to help children succeed — right from the start. “The way you make communities safe is to invest in key programs that benefit children,” said Barry Ford, CSA’s president and CEO. “That’s the DNA of our organization, and early childhood is one of our foundational issue areas. It’s not the only thing we advocate for, but it’s 70% of what we do because we believe starting early and making early investments is critical to the long-term outcomes we seek for children.”

CSA’s emphasis on early care and education (ECE) has landed it support from a who’s who of ed funders, including the Pritzker Children’s Initiative, Buffett Early Childhood Fund, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and Heising-Simons Foundation. The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, which supports early childhood development in the U.S. and Africa, as IP has reported, recently gave CSA a three-year, $3 million grant. The Ballmer Group, which makes early ed a priority, provided a grant for $2.25 million over three years.

“A child’s earliest years are foundational to their development and future success,” said Raychael Jensen, Ballmer’s national director of Early Childhood & Families, when the gift was announced. “Ballmer Group views this investment with CSA as critical to making young children and their families a greater priority in public policy.”

A growing number of funders are stepping up their support of early education these days, and it’s an issue that nonprofits approach from countless ways. What makes CSA different, and likely attractive to funders, is its success in engaging and enlisting support beyond the usual suspects. CSA raises awareness in, and gives a voice to, sectors not typically associated with children and families.

While there is a growing consensus that our system of early care is deeply flawed, addressing those flaws is another matter, and broadening the constituency pushing for change is critical if it is ever going to be achieved. It’s an organizing and philanthropic strategy we’ve seen in other fields, such as climate funders’ support for birding, hunting and fishing groups, as well as business and faith organizations, in hopes of widening the tent.

As CSA’s Barry Ford put it, “What we do in the early education space is powerful, because we are bringing an influential and unexpected set of voices to the conversation, and they’re making arguments rooted in their own professional experience.”

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids

The Council for a Strong America’s origin story begins in the early 1990s, when a spike in crime kicked off a subsequent “lock ’em up” response, including a fever of harsh policies like mandatory minimum sentencing, three-strikes and zero-tolerance laws. But not everyone in the law enforcement community supported this severe approach. A number of leaders believed it was essential to address the roots of crime by promoting the welfare of children and families. This group included former U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson, as well as many law enforcement officers and crime survivors.

The result was the group Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, created in 1996. CSA’s website describes it as “a national group of law enforcement leaders who would work to prevent crime by helping at-risk children succeed in life.” In 2006, the group expanded its focus and membership to include representatives of the business community under the umbrella of a new organization, Council for a Strong America.

Mission: Readiness, an organization of retired generals, admirals and other military leaders, started in 2009, after research by the Department of Defense concluded that over 70% of young people in the U.S. did not qualify for the military because of educational deficits, obesity and involvement in the criminal justice system. The organization, which works to strengthen national security “by ensuring kids stay in school, stay fit, and stay out of trouble,” later became part of CSA, as well. Today, CSA has over 10,000 members, including from the athletic and faith communities.

CSA’s growth corresponds with increasing awareness of how critical the earliest years of development are — awareness informed by cutting-edge brain research. “The brain science has become more and more compelling over time,” Ford said. “We now know that from the moment of birth, babies are learning, and that the brain is making millions of connections. We also know that the quality of the environment babies and toddlers are in enhances the likelihood that they will reach their potential. I would argue that we need to absolutely invest early, but also to support children and families through the entire growth cycle. But if we don’t make substantial early investments, we’re missing a huge opportunity.”

Credible messengers

CSA’s work includes research; this year, for example, the organization published a report on the link between high-quality early care and crime prevention; another recent report calculated the billions in societal benefits the U.S. would accrue by increasing access to high-quality preschool. CSA’s in-depth research supports what the organization sees as its primary role: an advocacy organization. CSA has a presence in 35 states and nine state offices, including its main office in Washington. Members speak directly to lawmakers, provide testimony at government hearings, place op-eds and letters to the editor in local and national newspapers, and make media appearances.

CSA, like many ECE advocates today, believes that the government needs to take a larger role in early childhood care and education, as is true of governments in most other developed countries. Ford acknowledges that this is often a sticking point for conservative policymakers who are resistant to government spending. CSA’s membership — from law enforcement, the military, and the business world — is particularly well positioned to make this argument, he says.

“Our members are credible messengers on these issues for more conservative policymakers,” he said. “Everybody cares about thriving children; it’s not a uniquely progressive or uniquely conservative issue. Where you get disagreement is about what the role of government should be. And having a law enforcement executive or retired general or business person say that government needs to play a bigger role because of [early care’s] impact on the economy, or because of its impact on our national security, or because that’s how we enable communities to be safe and thriving — that changes the conversation.”

Conservatives (on both sides of the aisle) weren’t swayed during the most recent legislative session, of course. CSA supported the Biden administration’s Build Back Better plan, which included universal pre-K and significantly expanded access to childcare, among other provisions. After months of wrangling, Build Back Better stalled on Capitol Hill. (As of this writing, no Republicans support the measure, and a slimmed down version is under consideration.)

Ford blames the failure of President Joe Biden’s plan, at least in part, on the polarization that has seized Washington. “The differences [over support for early care] between the parties were typically on the level of the investment they were willing to support, but whether it was child care, home visiting, or pre-K — these were largely bipartisan issues,” he said. “You still see bipartisan support at the state level, but the culture wars have made the current situation really disheartening at the federal level.”

CSA and other advocates are making the argument in other forums, as well. Barry Ford chairs the steering committee of the National Collaborative for Infants & Toddlers. Even before Build Back Better floundered, the collaborative crafted an Open Letter to the Nation on Behalf of Infants and Toddlers, which describes the group’s priorities, including high-quality, affordable child care, and points out that its lack “costs our nation’s economy $57 billion annually.” To date, the letter has over 1,500 signatories.

“We’re still hopeful that some scaled-down version of federal legislation can still be enacted that supports early childhood,” Ford said. “As an organization, we’ve been reminding Republican and conservative policy-makers of their longstanding support for these issues. So I’m hopeful. I’m not a Pollyanna, but I’m hopeful that we can get back to that place.”

Philanthropy’s role

Despite the recent setbacks in Washington, Ford sees many reasons to be optimistic, including growing support for ECE among philanthropists. The grant from Conrad Hilton was a first, for example, as was the recent gift from the Ballmer Group.

“What I’m particularly heartened by, and I hope more philanthropic dollars flow to this, is the recognition that in addition to supporting best practices and how to improve direct services, there needs to be a substantial and long-term commitment to advocacy,” he said. “To change the policy infrastructure that these services are delivered in is really really hard. We’re an advocacy organization. Our role in this space is to help change public systems so that young children get what they need to thrive. I’m heartened that our philanthropy partners recognize this too.”

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