A growing coalition promotes universal childcare as “essential economic infrastructure” that’s critical to a strong workforce. But childcare increases workforce participation by decreasing parents’ time with their own young children. Research shows that full-time group care harms some children — and it’s not what most families want. Policy should empower parents, not replace them.

Our core policy goal must be to reinforce the fundamental bonds of family: elevating — rather than displacing — the vital role of parents in raising their own children, especially during the first, foundational years of development.

A two-generation approach that eliminates silos between current federal programs and reduces regulatory and fiscal barriers to innovation can break the cycle of intergenerational poverty — advancing opportunity for two generations simultaneously.

Building new bureaucracies or tacking preschool programs onto failing public schools are not the correct strategies for moving forward. Instead, we should target funding at the most vulnerable children, strengthen existing federal programs rather than create new bureaucracies, and promote research and innovation to raise the bar for action.

State leaders have an extraordinary opportunity to build effective early childhood systems right, from the ground up. Here is what they should do — and what they shouldn't — to accomplish that.

The well-being of America’s most vulnerable kids is crucial to both their life chances and the success of our country as a whole. Failing to act on this issue condemns millions of our youngest citizens to a bad start that many can never overcome.