I'm Rex Barr Jr., President of Catan Strategy Group, a business consulting firm in Cypress, Texas. I also spent three years operating a childcare center early in my career. The Trump administration recently proposed spending $1.8 billion on what they called an "Anti-Weaponization Fund." Both parties rejected it. Courts blocked it. This week, the administration walked away from it entirely. You can read about it here via PBS NewsHour.
I have a better use for that $1.8 billion.
I'm not a politician and I don't have a party. I'm a business owner. I'm someone who has worked with hundreds of small business owners across the country trying to hire better, operate better, and compete. What I see in the American workforce every single day concerns me. What frustrates me more is that nobody is proposing anything real to fix it.
So here's my proposal.
I'm calling it the Yes We Can, Be Great Again Program. The goal is straightforward. Invest in American children ages 3 to 5. Build the foundational skills they're missing right now. Create a workforce over the next 15 to 20 years that can actually compete.
This isn't partisan. It's business. And the math works.
The American Workforce Problem Starts Early
Through Catan Strategy Group, I've worked with dozens of businesses on hiring, compliance, technology, and operations. I've seen the workforce problem from both sides. I've lived it.
Here's what I know: the American workforce is broken. Not because people don't want to work. Not because of immigration or automation or whatever the politicians are blaming this week. It's broken because we never built the right foundation in the first place.
Emotional regulation. Physical health. Nutrition. These aren't soft skills. They're the building blocks of a functional human being. We're not teaching them.
The result is a workforce that costs you more in healthcare every year. They burn out faster. They can't manage stress. They can't perform at the level a global economy requires.
We can fix this. We just have to start early.
A Real Plan for Workforce Development
There are approximately 63,000 private childcare centers in the United States. From Philadelphia to Cypress, Texas to San Diego. More than 85 percent are small, independently operated. That includes:
- Mom-and-pop for-profit centers owned and operated by local individuals or partners
- Faith-based centers run locally out of churches, synagogues, or mosques
- Community nonprofits, standalone local organizations, and parent-run centers
That gives us roughly 53,550 small independent centers nationwide.
I propose that the United States fund a program to train and certify teachers to deliver three hours of structured instruction per week to every childcare class serving children ages 3 to 5, at each of these 53,550 centers.
Those three hours are broken down as follows:
- 1 hour: Yoga and strength training. Building physical awareness, coordination, and a lifelong relationship with movement.
- 1 hour: Emotional intelligence and self-regulation. Teaching children to identify, understand, and manage their emotions before they become behavioral problems.
- 1 hour: Nutrition education. Teaching children the difference between foods that help their body and brain versus foods that hurt them, including protein, fiber, carbohydrates, sugar, and processed foods.
These are not revolutionary ideas. The research on early childhood development is overwhelming. Children who receive this kind of structured instruction between ages 3 and 5 develop stronger bodies, calmer minds, and healthier eating habits that stay with them for life. The earlier children build these three foundations, the less likely they are to struggle with behavior problems, poor health, or emotional challenges as they grow.
But here is what I want to be clear about: I am not proposing this because it is good for children, even though it is. I am proposing this because it is good for business.
How This Creates a Better Workforce
Think about what we are actually building here.
A child who learns emotional self-regulation at age 4 becomes an employee at age 25 who can handle a difficult customer without falling apart. A child who learns about nutrition at age 3 becomes an adult who does not cost their employer $15,000 a year in preventable healthcare expenses. A child who builds physical strength and coordination early becomes a worker with more energy, fewer sick days, and greater endurance.
These are not abstract benefits. They directly affect your bottom line as a business owner.
The United States spends more per capita on healthcare than any other developed nation and gets worse workforce productivity outcomes in return. A significant portion of that healthcare cost is driven by preventable chronic conditions rooted in poor nutrition, lack of physical activity, and stress management failures that start in childhood.
We are not going to fix the American workforce by training adults who already have bad habits. We have to go earlier. The Yes We Can, Be Great Again Program goes earlier.
The Math
Here is how the numbers work out.
Teachers are trained and certified in all three program areas. Each teacher works three hours per week at each assigned center for 47 weeks per year. Centers typically have four to five weeks of closures annually, which is already factored in. Teachers work at multiple centers per week, typically four to eight, making this a viable income source.
The rate is $25 per hour, which includes a gas stipend. This is significantly higher than the national average wage for childcare teachers and reflects both the certification requirement and the travel involved.
The cost per center per year:
3 hours per week × 47 weeks × $25 per hour = $3,525 per center
Total teacher cost across all 53,550 centers:
53,550 centers × $3,525 = $188.7 million per year
Add 20% for program administration (and yes, I'm being generous with that number because this is a government program and we all know how that goes):
$188.7 million × 1.20 = $226.4 million in Year 1
Five-year cost with 3% annual increase:
- Year 1: $226.4 million
- Year 2: $233.2 million
- Year 3: $240.2 million
- Year 4: $247.4 million
- Year 5: $254.8 million
- Total 5-year investment: $1.202 billion
That leaves approximately $598 million remaining from the original $1.8 billion.
My proposal: fund the program for five years, prove it works, and let Congress decide whether to extend or make it permanent. If the data shows improvement in school readiness, behavioral outcomes, and long-term health metrics, the argument for permanent funding makes itself.
What the Remaining $598 Million Is For
I am not proposing to spend all $1.8 billion. The remaining $598 million stays in reserve. If the program needs adjustments in years two or three, the money is there. If Congress wants to expand to additional centers not currently covered, the money is there. If independent researchers need funding to study outcomes, the money is there.
This is not a blank check. It is a five-year pilot with built-in accountability and enough reserve to course-correct.
Why Both Parties Should Support This
I said I am not a partisan, and I mean it. Here is why this idea should work for both sides.
For those focused on economic competitiveness: the United States is in a global race. China, Germany, South Korea, and others are investing heavily in workforce development. We are debating how to spend $1.8 billion on a fund that neither party fully supported. At some point we have to ask ourselves what actually makes a country competitive. It is not military spending alone. It is the quality of the people in its workforce.
For those focused on government accountability: this program goes directly to 53,550 small, independently operated businesses that are already serving their communities. There is no new government bureaucracy. There is no slush fund with no oversight. There is a certified teacher showing up at a local childcare center for three hours a week. You can see it. You can measure it. You can audit it.
For those focused on family values: you want American children to be physically healthy, emotionally stable, and able to make good decisions about what they put in their bodies. So do I. So does every parent. This program makes that happen.
For those focused on small business: if you run a business and your employees are healthier, more emotionally regulated, and more physically capable, your healthcare costs go down and your productivity goes up. This is not charity. This is an investment with a return.
Why I'm Proposing This
I'm Rex Barr Jr. Early in my career I ran a childcare center for three years. I know what happens inside those buildings. I know what the staff deal with and what the families need. I run Catan Strategy Group in Cypress, Texas, and I've worked with dozens of childcare and care-based businesses on hiring, compliance, operations, and scaling.
I don't have a political agenda. I have a business owner's perspective on what a competitive, capable workforce looks like. Right now, we're not building one.
I'm not complaining. I'm proposing something.
What Happens Next
I can't walk this into Congress. But ideas spread when people share them.
If you're a business owner tired of watching the workforce conversation go nowhere, share this. If you're a parent who wants your childcare center to do more than babysit, share this. If you're a teacher, a childcare operator, anyone who works with children and sees what's missing, share this.
If you're Democrat, Republican, or neither, and you think there's a better use of $1.8 billion than a fund both parties rejected, share this.
The Yes We Can, Be Great Again Program is a five-year, $1.2 billion investment in the future American workforce. It's specific. It's costed out. It's deliverable right now using infrastructure that already exists. And it costs less than the fund nobody wanted.
If not this, then what? If not now, then when?
Share this. Tag a business owner. Tag a parent. Tag an elected official. Let them know that the people who actually run businesses and hire workers have real ideas.
Rex Barr Jr. is a business strategist and founder of Catan Strategy Group, based in Cypress, Texas. Earlier in his career, he operated a childcare center for more than three years and has since worked with dozens of care-based and small businesses on hiring, compliance, and operational improvement. He writes about business, workforce development, and wealth building at rexbarr.com.