Child Care Is Ohio's Infrastructure. We're Building It.

For too long, Ohio has treated child care as a private expense—family by family, provider by provider. That framing has produced a system where early childhood educators earn poverty wages, family childcare providers operate on razor-thin margins, and working parents pay more for infant care than rent.

The Pillars

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The Stakes

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The Strategy

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The Pillars ✳︎ The Stakes ✳︎ The Strategy ✳︎

CEO Project Organizing Priorities

  • Wage theft and fair compensation

    No workforce that cares for our children should be exploited, misclassified, or paid below a living wage. We organize providers and educators to document wage theft, recover what is owed, and win policies that protect them — because fair pay is not a benefit. It is a baseline.

  • Workforce development and sustainability

    Ohio cannot expand access on the back of a workforce that is burning out, leaving the field, or being recruited into poorly regulated alternatives. We are fighting for public investment in recruitment, retention, professional development, and the business supports that allow small and family-based providers to keep their doors open. A strong workforce requires more than applause. It requires capital.

  • Private equity

    When investment firms buy up child care chains, the goal is never quality. The goal is return — and return, in our sector, is extracted from educators' wages, families' tuition bills, and corners cut on staffing and learning materials. We will not let child care become another industry hollowed out by Wall Street. We are pushing for transparency, accountability, and policy guardrails that put children and community providers before shareholders.

  • Eligibility and access

    Ohio's child care assistance is so restrictive that a modest raise can disqualify a working family from the care that makes their employment possible. This eligibility cliff is not an accident. It is a policy choice, and we are organizing to change it. Expanding access means more children in quality programs, more parents able to work, and more providers reimbursed at rates that reflect the care they deliver.

  • The true cost of care

    For decades, Ohio has funded child care based on what the market will bear — a market shaped by families who are already overpaying. We are demanding that public investments reflect the true cost of quality: fair wages, benefits, appropriate staffing, safe facilities, and the educational materials young children deserve. Until the math changes, nothing else will.

  • Universal child care

    Our north star is a system where no family's zip code, income, or job status determines whether their child can access high-quality early learning. Universal child care is not a wish. It is a workforce strategy, an economic development strategy, and an equity strategy — and it is achievable if we organize for it.

CEO Project Safety Net Work

  • Pre-Natal to 3

    Advocate for policies and investments that support children and families from pregnancy through age three, the most critical period of brain development. This includes expanding access to quality early learning, maternal health supports, home visiting programs, and family economic stability to ensure every child has the strongest possible start in life.

  • Doula

    Expand access to culturally responsive doula care before, during, and after childbirth to improve maternal and infant health outcomes. CEO Project supports policies that increase Medicaid reimbursement for doulas, grow the doula workforce, and reduce racial disparities in maternal mortality and birth outcomes.

  • SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program)

    Protect and strengthen access to SNAP benefits so families with young children can consistently afford nutritious food. Food security is foundational to healthy child development, school readiness, and economic stability for working families.

  • Medicaid for Young Children

    Ensure infants and young children have continuous access to comprehensive healthcare through Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). CEO Project supports policies that expand eligibility, simplify enrollment and renewals, and guarantee children receive preventive care, developmental screenings, behavioral health services, and necessary medical treatment during their earliest years.

The question is no longer whether Ohio can afford to build this system. It is whether we can afford not to.

This is the work of building power — not once, but durably. Through grassroots organizing, leadership development, and coalition, the CEO Project is moving from policy ask to policy win: from documenting problems to reshaping budgets, statutes, and the politics of who counts when Ohio invests in its future.

What This Means for Ohio

We know what we are fighting for. We know who we are fighting alongside: child care providers, educators, parents, and community leaders across every corner of this state. And we know what success looks like — a system where care work is respected, providers are resourced, families are supported, and every Ohio child gets the start they deserve.