Walking through a neighborhood with opulent condos towering over closed daycare centers has a subtle unnerving quality. It occurs more frequently than people realize in places like New York, San Francisco, and Chicago, which produce enormous amounts of wealth, support prestigious universities, and still struggle to find a suitable classroom for a three-year-old.
Recent data from international early childhood education organizations, including analysis consistent with OMEP’s long-standing advocacy work, are starting to paint a picture that should shame both city hall and Washington policymakers. At rates that lag behind some developing countries, children in some of America’s wealthiest urban areas have access to high-quality early childhood care and education. That isn’t exaggeration. In a subtle way, it’s a scandal that goes unnoticed.
Even on their own, the figures from global research are startling. Globally, more than 412 million children make less than $3 per day. However, despite this dire situation, nations in some regions of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa have made intentional, occasionally impressive investments in early childhood frameworks. In areas that can hardly afford it, real, quantifiable change has been brought about by public provision, community-based models, and national commitments linked to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 4, particularly Target 4.2, which calls for universal access to high-quality early childhood care by 2030.
In contrast, early childhood education in America is still viewed as a privilege rather than an infrastructure. Even in wealthy urban areas, families who most need subsidized, high-quality early learning must navigate waitlists, eligibility mazes, and a patchwork of underfunded programs that change with every budget cycle because access is primarily determined by the market. There is a feeling that the nation has subtly come to the conclusion that this is okay and that the chaos is just the way things are.
It is worthwhile to consider what UNICEF’s own research has shown in its Innocenti Report Card series: a greater income disparity within a nation is generally associated with worse children’s academic performance, mental health, and physical health. This pattern also applies to the United States, one of the richest and most economically unequal countries on the planet. The nation is, if anything, a prime example of it.
This is especially annoying because the economic case for early investment has been presented time and time again in a convincing manner. According to UNESCO, the annual cost to the world economy of not educating children is approximately ten trillion dollars. Even a ten percent decrease in early school dropout rates could boost GDP growth by one to two percentage points per year. These aren’t sentimental, soft statistics. These are the kinds of figures that ought to influence budget committees.
Political will—or lack thereof—is the underlying problem. Several countries, some of which are far poorer than a single American city, have achieved significant advancements in early childhood access through clear and persistent public commitment. In the same way that roads and water systems are non-negotiable, they treated early education as such. On the other hand, American cities that have tax bases greater than those of entire developing nations continue to rely on federal pilot programs and charitable donations to close gaps that ought to have been filled decades ago.
You still have time to change your direction. The 2030 Sustainable Development Goal is both near enough to generate urgency and far enough away to permit significant structural change. However, that calls for more than awareness campaigns and task forces. Every child’s first five years must be viewed as a public duty rather than a product of the market. Some of the least resource-rich countries in the world have already discovered this. Whether America’s wealthiest cities are open to learning from them is the question.
