Having two young children in full time daycare, William understands the huge financial burden child care places on NH families. Waitlists for infants at day cares in many towns are over a year, resulting in families struggling with starting families as they juggle work and child care while waiting for a spot. The State of NH also treats child care and early education as two separate concerns with different agencies managing each. This leads to a disconnect when children leave the child care environment and move to early learning in kindergarten.

In Concord, we need leaders that will support programs to train more child care professions and streamline licensing, administration and curriculum between child care, early learning, and public education. We have decided as a society that educating our children is a public good. We should be treating education as a continuous journey from early childhood through traditional public schools rather than starting with public schools at age 5.