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Most New Governors in the Class of 2027 Champion Early Care and Education
November 13, 2026
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Most New Governors in the Class of 2027 Champion Early Care and Education
In states with top-rated pre-k programs, incoming leaders are pledging universal access.
Following last week’s election, 21 states will swear in a new governor in 2027, representing the third-highest gubernatorial turnover since 1962. A new AI-assisted analysis from Bank Street College of Education looked at what all 2026 candidates had to say about child care, universal pre-k, workforce bonuses, employer tax incentives, grants for new facilities, and more.
Expanding child care subsidies and pre-k were the most popular ECE platforms: 18 of 21 new governors pledged to expand child care subsidies, and 15 promised to expand pre-k, including members of both political parties.
In states with top-rated pre-K programs, leadership is passing from one early education champion to another—even where party control changed. Among states with preschool programs that meet all 10 of NIEER’s research-based quality standards, every new governor elected in 2026 pledged universal access:
- Alabama Governor-Elect Tommy Tuberville (R) has pledged to fully fund Alabama’s First Class Pre-K Program so “every family that wants a seat can get one.”
- Georgia’s Governor-Elect Keisha Lance-Bottoms (D) promised a "dedicated, recurring funding source, without raising taxes, to ensure that every parent who wants their child to attend Georgia's pre-k program has that opportunity."
- Michigan Governor-Elect Jocelyn Benson (D) said the state must "ensure that high-quality pre-kindergarten is available to all 3- and 4-year-olds.” Michigan’s universal pre-k program currently targets 4-year-olds, but research has found that children with two years of quality preschool do better than those with one.
- Rhode Island Governor-Elect Helena Foulkes said, “I will ensure that every Rhode Island family has access to pre-Kindergarten education by the end of my second term.”
See what your state’s candidates said about ECE in the Bank Street analysis.
Peer Effects as a Compensatory Support for Preschoolers’ Language Development
A study in Early Education and Development by Tiffany J. Foster, Laura M. Justice, G. Logan Pelfrey, Dwight Irvin, and Hugo Gonzalez Villasanti examined whether preschool children’s expressive language growth was related to the language skills of their classmates. The study included 148 children in 21 classrooms, with an average age of 4.33 years. The authors found that preschool classmates' expressive language skills did not show a strong overall association with children’s language gains, but the relationship depended on children’s initial language ability. Children who began preschool with lower expressive language skills benefited more from being in classrooms with stronger language peers than children who entered with higher skills.
NIEER Activity
NIEER’s Milagros Nores Keynotes “Decir Con Evidencia” Conference in Cartagena, Colombia
La Co -Directora de Investigación de NIEER, Milagros Nores, se unió a el evento de Colombia Evidencia Potencial en Educación en Primera Infancia, junto con aliados del sector privado, fundaciones, hacedores de política, y proveedores de programas trabajando en primera infancia en Colombia este noviembre 3 pasado. Ella tuvo la oportunidad de compartir como keynote sus reflexiones sobre medición en sistemas de primera infancia y contribuyó a un panel sobre calidad en primera infancia junto con Carolina Maldonado-Carreño de Facultad de Educación Universidad de los Andes, Oscar Iván Pineda de Innovations for Poverty Action Colombia, Leonardo Rodriguez del ICBF & @Olga Lucia Romero de Colombia Evidencia Potencial en Educación.
NIEER’s co-director of research, Milagros Nores, joined Colombia Evidencia Potencial en Educación, public sector allies, foundations, policymakers, and program providers working in early childhood care and education in Colombia on November 3rd. She shared in a keynote her reflections on measurement in early childhood systems and contributed to a panel on quality in early childhood with Carolina Maldonado-Carreño de Los Andes, Oscar Iván Pineda de IPA Colombia, Leonardo Rodriguez del ICBF & Olga Lucia Romero de Colombia Evidencia Potencial en Educación.
Read Nores’ research on teacher’s play facilitation in Colombia.
Focus on New Jersey
Licensed Center-Based Child Care Providers in New Jersey: Revenues and Expenses
How does a child care center stay afloat when staff salaries make up roughly two-thirds of operating expenses? 📉
In NIEER’s latest report with the Rutgers Child Care Research Collaborative, Milagros Nores, Christina Stephens, PhD, Allison Friedman-Krauss, Andrea Kent, and Karin Garver break down revenue sources and operating expenses in New Jersey’s licensed child care centers.
Here are 3 key takeaways for NJ providers and policymakers:
- The Funding Breakdown: 80% of centers rely on family tuition, 61% receive state Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP, or subsidy) funding, and 18% receive state pre-K funding.
- Complementary Policy Levers: NJ’s CCAP and state pre-K programs largely support entirely different segments of the child care supply, serving as two unique levers to stabilize the system.
- The People Expense: Child care is a highly labor-intensive industry with limited financial flexibility, as staffing accounts for two-thirds (66%) of all center expenditures.
Read the full report to see how these insights can shape better supports and policies for NJ's ECE system.
International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy (IJCCEP) Weekly Feature
The Role of Length of Maternity Leave in Supporting Mother–Child Interactions and Attachment Security Among American Mothers and Their Perceived Accessibility of Childcare in Europe: A Cross-Country Multilevel Study
Özgün Ünver, Tuba Bircan, and Ides Nicaise analyzed how national early childhood education and care systems shape families’ perceptions of childcare accessibility across Europe. Accessibility was defined in terms of affordability, availability, quality, and physical access, and the researchers used multilevel analyses linking individual perceptions with national differences in ECEC provision, regulation, and financing. Childcare was perceived as more accessible in countries that did not permit private, for-profit programs for children ages 3-6, operated more integrated systems across the birth-to-3 and 3-6 age groups, and provided greater public spending per child from birth through age 5. Public financial support was especially important for families with below average incomes. The findings suggest that system design and public investment can shape how accessible childcare feels to families, particularly those with fewer economic resources.
Publish in the International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy (IJCCEP)
- It’s FREE – article processing charges for all articles published in the journal are fully sponsored.
- The journal is indexed by Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) and by Scopus.
- All articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 license. Authors will retain copyright.
ECE Research
Margot Rémeau and Grégoire Borst, writing in Early Education and Development, examined relationships among socioeconomic status, executive functions, and pre academic achievement in 2,088 French preschool children. Children were classified into nine profiles based on socioeconomic status and achievement, including academically resilient children from low socioeconomic backgrounds who nevertheless demonstrated high achievement. Pre academic achievement was more strongly associated with working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility than socioeconomic status, and after accounting for achievement, socioeconomic status showed no independent relationship with executive function. Academically resilient children performed similarly on executive function measures to high achieving children from more advantaged backgrounds and better than low achieving peers. The findings caution against assuming that children from disadvantaged backgrounds necessarily have executive function deficits and suggest that educators should consider children’s individual cognitive and academic profiles alongside socioeconomic circumstances.
In Early Child Development and Care, Yawei Yang, Zimei Zeng, Chao Zhang, Wenyan Zeng, Liman Cai, and Xiaoxuan Lin, examined how domain-specific cognitive abilities relate to symbolic mathematics in 572 Chinese preschool children, with a mean age of about 5½ years. The researchers tested whether exact numerical processing and geometric transformation skills helped explain associations between visual spatial ability, verbal short-term memory, verbal working memory, and sustained attention and children’s counting and story problem solving. All four cognitive abilities showed significant indirect associations with symbolic mathematics through numerical processing, while no comparable indirect associations emerged through geometric processing. The cognitive abilities also retained direct associations with at least one mathematics outcome, indicating that numerical processing did not fully explain their contributions. The findings suggest that early symbolic mathematics may depend on both broad cognitive abilities and domain specific numerical processing, while the role of geometric processing appears more limited in this cross- sectional study.
Sabrina Bolduc, writing in Early Years, systematically reviewed 20 empirical studies from 2012-2025 on educational practices in culturally and linguistically diverse early childhood settings. Guided by the PRISMA framework, she examined how inclusive practices are described, the conditions that shape them, and how they support children’s participation and relationships with families. Four interconnected areas emerged: pedagogical practices, peer and adult child interactions, collaboration with families, and organizational and professional conditions. Inclusive practice was reflected in recognizing children’s home languages, adapting activities in culturally responsive ways, partnering with families, and creating conditions that support professional learning and continuity. The findings suggest that inclusion in diverse early childhood settings is multidimensional and is built through everyday pedagogical, relational, and organizational practices that strengthen children’s participation and sense of belonging.
Opportunities
Program Officer, Children and Families, The David & Lucile Packard Foundation
Senior Director / Director of Policy and Advocacy, Early Childhood Investment Corporation
Founding Generation Summer Fellowship for Undergraduates, International Congress of Infant Studies
Senior Research Associate, Annenberg Institute, Brown University
Assistant Director for Program Evaluation, Harlem Children’s Zone
National Sales Manager, Professional Development, ZERO TO THREE
Sr. Professional Development Specialist, ZERO TO THREE
Analyst, Research and Evaluation, Illinois Action for Children
Early Learning Policy Associate, Texans Care for Children
The Authors
Allison Muhlendorf manages external affairs for NIEER, including communications, earned and owned media, government relations, partnerships, and outreach.
About NIEER
The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at the Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, conducts and disseminates independent research and analysis to inform early childhood education policy.
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