“Georgia’s reputation as the best state to do business means little if people do not want to live and raise children here. In order to build a strong economy for the next generation, we must ensure that they have every opportunity to thrive.

We’ve known for a long time that investing in the education and well-being of young children pays enormous dividends; not just monetarily, but also in healthier communities, a more resilient economy, and greater potential for everyone.

I’m reminded of Stephen Jay Gould’s observation in The Panda’s Thumb: “I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” The point is not simply what we might gain by giving children opportunity. It is what we lose when we do not.

Too many children are being asked to overcome circumstances that should never have been barriers in the first place. We’re allowing potential to go unrealized, and our entire state is poorer for it.

Making Georgia the best place to raise children means investing seriously in early childhood education, affordable and accessible childcare, healthcare, safe communities, and strong public schools. It also means recognizing that children have rights and interests of their own, and learning from places that have done better than we have.

We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We need to give Georgia’s children the opportunity to become everything they are capable of becoming.”