Georgia voters want leaders to step up their game for our youngest children
I’ve been watching professional sports for as long as I can remember, and for the last 25 years, have watched one particular NFL team pretty darn closely. One thing I’ve learned is that it takes a whole team to actually win.
No coach is going to send his quarterback onto the field without his linemen, receivers and running back to protect, support and help carry the load.
Workplaces focus on teamwork, too.
At the Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students, the nonprofit where I proudly serve as chair — as well as at the Home Depot, where I started my career — leadership recognizes that every employee has a role to play. Their contributions are integral to the success of the team and, ultimately, the organization.
But somehow, for the most important role I can think of — that of being a parent — we usually send our QB onto the field without a full team and game plan. Once the expertise of the hospital staff is left behind, the full impact of bringing that precious newborn home hits like a linebacker. It’s on parents and caregivers, often without family helpers nearby, to go straight back to work for their essential incomes if their employers don’t offer paid leave.
Only 27% of employers do offer this benefit and a quarter of women return to work within just two short weeks of giving birth. It’s on them to jump through hoops to get their babies health insurance, and it’s on them to find an affordable, high-quality childcare program that has an open slot and a location they can get to by pickup time in rush hour.
Childcare and healthcare are as important as tax cuts
Until recently, many Georgians didn’t see a connection between our society’s success and support for families with very young children. They viewed parenting challenges as a personal problem, not a collective or systemic one that deserves a substantial line item on a state budget and a team approach to providing meaningful support.
A recent GEEARS-commissioned poll of likely voters shows that Georgians are not thinking that way anymore and they are carrying their support for families with little ones into the voting booth.
The bipartisan poll found that Georgia voters are deeply concerned about our affordability crisis. For them, childcare and healthcare are on par with tax cuts in importance. Eight in 10 respondents told us that they believe government should share the responsibility for childcare with working parents.
And it’s not a big leap to connect childcare with the rest of the economy.
A parent who can’t find care for their child, after all, can’t stay in the workforce. This hurts their employer’s bottom line and means their family might need social safety nets to help them afford housing, food and healthcare. At the same time, their child is missing developmentally critical early education, a gap that could follow them through their future.
In other words, this great big team we’re all a part of as residents of Georgia? It won’t thrive unless we’re all allowed to play.
Georgians are calling an audible and want our leaders to step up their game for the state’s youngest children. Seven in 10 likely voters say they’re not confident that life will be better for the next generation. A majority say they’d rather see the state apply our budget surplus to family supports, like housing, early education and healthcare, than tax cuts.
We need leaders who will stand up for kids and families
Candidates in our current election need to know — and act upon — these priorities. And voters need to know their candidates’ early childhood plans and promises.
That’s why GEEARS’ nonpartisan Voter Guide features 120 candidates telling us how they’d help make Georgia the best place to raise a child. I also interviewed candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and state school superintendent at the GEEARS 2026 Early Childhood Candidate Forum.
I encourage you to check out these resources and forward them throughout your network. We should all exercise our constitutional right and vote in this election.
And if we care about our collective future — especially at a time when Americans are being asked to have more babies to combat population decline — it’s critically important that we vote for the candidates willing to step up for our kids and families.
Stephanie V. Blank is the founding board chair of GEEARS: Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students.
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The opinions expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.