A Child’s First 8 Years Can Lead to Lifelong Success. Why The 74 Is Digging Deeper Into Early Care and Education

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The first eight years of a child’s life are critical for learning and development. Yet the landscape of early care and education in the U.S. is riddled with challenges. Some barriers are long-standing, while others are more recent or have been exacerbated by forces including the pandemic, economic uncertainty, systemic inequities and political polarization. 

The crisis impacting the early learning sector is layered. Families are struggling to find affordable, high-quality care. Providers are stretched thin, often unable to make ends meet. The ecosystem of policies and funding is shrouded in uncertainty, creating chaos and instability. 

Still, through it all, bright spots have emerged. There are talented educators supporting our nation’s youngest learners in powerful ways. There are researchers, policymakers and advocates working tirelessly to improve the lived experiences of families with young children and early learning professionals. There are programs creatively tackling some of the field’s most pressing issues, like compensation, the rising cost of care and access to high-quality programs. And broadly, the public has become more aware of the need for a strong, sustainable early care and education system.

The 74 wants to help readers make sense of the sector’s complex challenges — and to highlight innovative approaches to solving them. That’s why we’re excited to introduce zero2eight, a new vertical dedicated to early care and education that will publish stories from — and for — those who see early learning as essential to setting every child up for future success.

Zero2eight will be dedicated to covering the news, practices, policies and research shaping the experiences of young children, their families and the early learning workforce. We’ll examine the landscape of American child care and early childhood education; emerging research in early childhood development; and novel solutions that are pushing the field forward.

Our coverage will build upon the robust archive of work published by Early Learning Nation, an independent magazine that launched in 2018 as an initiative of the Bezos Family Foundation and joined The 74 in fall 2024. As its readers know, Early Learning Nation has played a key role in raising awareness and deepening public understanding of American child care and early learning. Through the years its industry-leading team of writers and analysts have brought unique expertise and experience to these topics, which they’ll continue to do here at The 74. 

“The key issues affecting America’s K-12 students begin well before kindergarten and continue well beyond high school graduation,” 74 CEO Steve Snyder said last fall, as he announced the merger. “Our partnership underscores The 74’s commitment in broadening our editorial priorities and deepening our coverage of equity, solutions and progress as we follow children from cradle to career.” 

Early Learning Nation’s six-year archive will be available on zero2eight. Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll also be resurfacing some memorable “must reads” from over the years.

It is with excitement and pertinence that we launch zero2eight. We hope you’ll follow and share our work on The 74 (bookmark our new home) and join our growing zero2eight Substack community. And, of course, be sure to sign up for The 74’s daily newsletter.

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