Early childhood education and care has become a central policy concern in many countries, and as services expand it is crucial to examine whether children from disadvantaged backgrounds receive equitable services. InAn Equal Start? experts from eight countries—the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, France, the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, and Australia—examine how early education and care is organized, funded, and regulated in their respective countries. They give up-to-date pictures of the access to services, providing rich insights into how policies play out in practice and the effects on the provision of services to disadvantaged children. Together they reveal a number of common tensions and complexities that many countries face in ensuring that early education and care is affordable, accessible, and of the highest possible quality.

Early childhood education and care has become a central policy concern in many countries, and as services expand it is crucial to examine whether children from disadvantaged backgrounds receive equitable services. In An Equal Start? experts from eight countries examine how early education and care is organized, funded, and regulated in their respective countries. They give up-to-date pictures of access to services by different groups, providing rich insights into how policies play out in practice and the effects on the provision of services to disadvantaged children. Together they reveal a number of common tensions and complexities that many countries face in ensuring that early education and care is affordable, accessible, and of the highest possible quality.

In this original, topical book, leading experts from eight countries examine how early education and care is organised, funded and regulated in their countries. Bringing together recent statistical evidence, the book gives an up-to-date picture of access to services by different groups, providing rich insights on how policies play out in practice , and the extent to which they help or hinder disadvantaged children to receive high quality provision.

"A well-researched and pertinent discussion of one of American liberalism's most important exponents". -- Choice. "A concise, intelligent, and highly readable study. What is fresh and extremely valuable is the flesh that Stettner puts on the bones of the old generalization about Croly and liberalism. This is a worthy addition to the literature on this important and influential American thinker". -- American Historical Review.