High-quality early childhood education has tremendous potential to improve children's and families' lives. Yet access to such education remains limited, and many early childhood educators lack the skills and credentials to improve quality in the field. To address these issues, advocates and a growing number of states have sought to extend the umbrella of K-12 teacher education and certification over the early childhood world. But that approach will surely fail to meet the needs of families, educators, and government. Instead, we propose that states create "Charter Colleges of Early Childhood Education"--research-driven, flexible, and accountable institutions that would help increase the supply of high-quality early childhood educators; provide those workers and their families with stable, well-paying jobs; and create a new model of higher education and credentialing that can be applied to other fields as well. (Contains 14 endnotes.) [For the full report, "Beyond Bachelor's: The Case for Charter Colleges of Early Childhood Education," see ED523283.]