A senator has opened an investigation into the country’s two largest child care companies that are controlled by private equity — as families grapple with rising prices.
On Tuesday, Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley sent letters to KinderCare Learning Companies and Learning Care Group, in addition to their respective owners, requesting detailed information about how the Wall Street-backed firms operate.
“Some analysts suggest that the growing role of private equity and other profitmaximizing ownership models in child care centers increase challenges related to affordability, staffing, and access—particularly where investor strategies increase financial pressure to raise prices, constrain labor costs, or concentrate capacity in higher-revenue markets,” Merkley wrote in one letter.
He pointed to an analysis showing that eight of the 10 largest child care firms are owned by private equity, while also citing studies that found such centers are more likely than their nonprofit counterparts to have staffing shortages, lower wages and higher prices.
Merkley also noted that regulators in several states have cited KinderCare for inadequate supervision, while centers owned by Learning Care Group have been reported for health and safety violations in some states.
He then asked the companies to turn over key information by April 7, such as parent entities, sponsors, subsidiaries, committee minutes, presentations, and related legal proceedings.
“Our future generations are our greatest resource, and we owe it to them to ensure their safety and security are at the forefront of everything we do,” the third-term senator said. “The private equity firms and the child care companies they control owe it to the families they serve to fully cooperate with this investigation, and I look forward to fully examining the documents and information we are requesting.”
KinderCare Learning Companies is owned by Partners Group, a private equity firm based in Switzerland, while Learning Care Group is owned by American Securities, a U.S.-based private equity company.
Both companies stressed that they view their role in delivering quality care as a serious and essential commitment.
“At KinderCare, our mission is simple and unwavering: to support working families and to provide a safe, nurturing, high quality learning environment so their children can thrive,” a company spokesperson told The Independent. “Every day, millions of parents across the country rely on early education and care so they can contribute to their communities and their workplaces. Annually, the federal government provides less than $250 in child care funding per American child while the cost of quality care continues to rise.”
“Every decision we make is grounded in providing safe, high-quality care and being a good place to work for our teachers,” Learning Care CEO John Bork said in a statement obtained by The Washington Post. “We believe thoughtful, long-term investment supports that mission, and we welcome the opportunity to work with policymakers to strengthen the system for families and educators.”
Child care costs in the United States have become a growing financial burden for many families, especially in recent years.
According to the First Five Years Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to early childhood policy, the average annual cost of child care now exceeds $13,000 per child. In many cases, that price tag rivals — or even surpasses — monthly rent, as a 2025 LendingTree analysis found.
The vast majority of voters, 80 percent, believe that the inability of working parents to find affordable child care options is a “major problem” or “a state of crisis,” according to a February FFYF survey.
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