Why Mike Feinberg Says Childcare Is an Education Issue — and a Workforce Issue

Most conversations about workforce training skip past a basic problem: some people can’t show up to class because nobody is watching their child. Mike Feinberg — co-founder of WorkTexas and the Texas School Venture Fund — says that obstacle is why his organization doesn’t treat childcare and workforce development as separate issues.

“You can’t get more people into trades and jobs if they have toddlers and no one’s watching the toddler,” Feinberg said in a 2024 interview. “They all wound up relating to each other.”

Feinberg launched Neighborhood Preschools in 2021 as part of the Texas School Venture Fund’s portfolio, specifically to remove childcare as a barrier for adults trying to enter or re-enter the workforce. The initiative blends public pre-K dollars with childcare subsidies and Department of Labor workforce funding — combining them in single facilities rather than routing families through disconnected programs. Coverage of workforce success factors often focuses on skills, but Feinberg argues the logistics of daily life — where to take your child, how to get there, who covers the gap between school hours and work hours — determine outcomes just as much.

Texas pre-K funding currently covers half-day programs. That structure, Feinberg notes, works poorly for anyone holding a full-time job. A parent dropping off a three-year-old at noon can’t reasonably work a standard shift. The preschool network he supports is built around full-day care inside the same building, eliminating the need to piece together separate programs across a neighborhood.

Feinberg’s thinking about wraparound support goes back to his KIPP days, when teachers visited students’ homes to understand what was working against them before class ever started. Writing about education and community support has long pointed to that principle — that school-based support can’t compensate for instability at home if the two systems never connect.

Feinberg is candid that the childcare side of his work is less visible than WorkTexas — and that building it has taken longer than he anticipated. He has shared updates on the effort through @kippbigdog on X, where he continues to document the evolution of the Texas School Venture Fund’s programs. Three childcare centers now operate directly under the fund, with 17 more in a public-private support network that Feinberg says is continuing to grow.