Community-based early learning services across Aotearoa are under growing pressure.

Rising costs, workforce shortages, inadequate funding and competition from large commercial providers are making it harder for community organisations to survive. When a service closes, we lose far more than childcare places. We risk losing community-owned property, generations of professional knowledge, trusted relationships with whānau and services designed around local needs, not investor returns.

What we protect now will shape what remains for future generations.

Aotearoa’s kindergarten movement proves that early childhood organisations can be professionally managed, enterprising and innovative while remaining community-owned, culturally grounded and committed to the public good.

Not-for-profit does not mean “not businesslike”. Kindergarten associations must understand their costs, manage risk, invest wisely and adapt to changing community needs. Financial sustainability is not separate from social purpose; it makes that purpose possible.

The critical difference is where the value goes.

In community-owned services, surpluses are not extracted for shareholders. They are reinvested in qualified teachers, inclusive practice, professional learning, facilities and support for whānau. Public funding does more than purchase attendance today. It builds assets, capability and relationships that can serve generations of tamariki.

At the recent Kindergarten Aotearoa Forum, economist Ganesh Nana challenged us to broaden our understanding of value. Too often, we count only what can be priced or entered on a balance sheet. Yet early childhood education also creates social value: a child who knows who they are and where they belong, a whānau that feels supported, and relationships that make communities stronger. These outcomes are harder to quantify, but their impact can endure across generations.

We must reject the assumption that growth and innovation belong only to the private market. Social purpose and commercial discipline are not opposites. Growth need not dilute purpose, and innovation does not require privatisation.

As the Government considers the future of early childhood education, it must ask more than how many places the market can supply. It must ask who owns the assets, where public funding ultimately goes and what lasting value it creates.

Community-based early learning is intergenerational infrastructure. Once lost, it will not be easily rebuilt.

Aotearoa already has a model worth protecting: community kindergarten. Its future depends on the choices we make now.

Author: Tara Solomon is Chief Executive of Kaitiaki Kindergartens, a community-based not-for-profit association providing early childhood education across northern Tāmaki Makaurau.