Indiana improved early childhood education. It's still not enough.

The clear support for early childhood education in Indiana’s 2024 legislative session is a victory for our state, and we at the United Way of Central Indiana and the Indiana Chamber of Commerce applaud the bipartisan momentum on this issue that is foundational to our collective future prosperity.

Indiana’s legislative and executive branches took important steps on multiple fronts: increasing workforce training and credentialing opportunities for early learning professionals, streamlining existing childcare regulations, expanding options in hard-to-serve areas with a microcenter pilot, creating easier pathways for schools to become pre-kindergarten providers and ensuring greater data transparency and reporting regarding the state’s investments in early learning.

And all of this was done with little to no fiscal impact on our current state budget.

However — and this is a big however — we are not done. Why? Because early childhood education is a statewide infrastructure issue, and we must treat it as such.

Thousands of Hoosiers cannot participate in Indiana’s workforce because they lack affordable childcare options. Indiana ranks 18th worst in the country for most expensive infant care, with the cost for just one child exceeding the average annual cost of in-state college tuition.

We also face a severe shortage of early care workers in Indiana, with a childcare workforce that decreased by nearly a quarter during the pandemic, and has yet to fully recover. This not only exacerbates our childcare access and affordability challenges, but also prevents parents and caregivers alike from attaining the in-demand skills and credentials needed to thrive in today’s labor market.

The linkages between education and workforce are the centerpiece of the Indiana Chamber’s economic vision plan for the state, Indiana Prosperity 2035. And with employers across Indiana consistently citing inadequate childcare among their top workforce challenges, failure to address this issue puts our strong business climate and future economic growth at risk.

Similarly, the United Way of Central Indiana has identified early care and learning as a priority issue in its goal of eliminating poverty. Increasing literacy outcomes and learning success for young children is key to reducing the number of households facing financial instability.

In short: Indiana’s childcare crisis is inhibiting the ability of individuals, businesses and communities to prosper. We must continue to work collaboratively to strengthen our childcare workforce and build early learning capacity with common-sense reforms, strategic investments and intentional public-private partnerships that ensure Hoosiers in every community and every corner of Indiana have access to high-quality early childhood care and education options.

Sam Snideman is Vice President of Government Relations for the United Way of Central Indiana. Jason Bearce is Vice President, Education and Workforce for the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana improved early childhood education. It's still not enough.