The Vermont Business Roundtable, an organization of over 100 Vermont business leaders, has championed the importance of early childhood care and education since 1999. Meanwhile, Vermont’s inability to comprehensively address early care and education continues, and the resulting disparity has become more pronounced than ever in the context of COVID 19. As business leaders, community members, and Vermonters, we believe the challenge of early childhood care and education cannot continue to wait. The Roundtable urges all Vermonters to recognize publicly-funded early child-care as the best investment we can make in Vermont.
To be effective, the goals of early child-care must address the needs of Vermont’s children from birth to kindergarten, and must include universal and affordable child-care, available to all children in Vermont, without financial barriers. A public program of quality care that sets standards and ensures child-care providers are experts trained in early education and compensated as professionals must be funded. We recognize that a program that achieves these goals will require a significant investment, and we are ready to do our part.
Our collective support for this investment is built upon core principles established by the Roundtable in January of 2021. These principles include an understanding that any revenues identified to implement early care and learning are transparent, equitable, competitive, and sustainable. We also believe that a truly impactful system should use data to be accountable to the outcomes that it produces. Our support stems from the belief that these goals can be achieved while ensuring every Vermont child has access to the care they need. Continue reading “Roundtable Issues Statement in Support of Public Investment in Child Care [4.25.22]” →
