Starting at Zero Podcast is LAUNCHED!

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27 Feb

Posted at 17:35h in News by

Business Insider
By Jacob Zinkula
February 27, 2024
If you're having a hard time affording childcare, you're not alone. The United States has one of the most expensive childcare systems in the world. That was among the key findings of a new Bank of America report released on February 22, which analyzed how high childcare costs could slow the growth of women in the US workforce. Using data from the OECD, an international economic coalition of 38 countries, Bank of America estimated the average childcare...

27 Feb

Posted at 17:20h in News by

The New York Times
By Troy Closson
February 27, 2024
In Brooklyn Heights, a couple that wanted to have a second child is reconsidering, anxious over crushing child care expenses and cutbacks to prekindergarten programs. In Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, a mother may move to a more expensive neighborhood nearby where she would be more likely to receive no-cost child care when her daughter turned 3. And in Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan, a mother who lost her job worries about what the future might hold if...

27 Feb

Posted at 17:10h in News by

AP News
By Bruce Schreiner
February 27, 2024
An ambitious measure to expand early childhood education in Kentucky passed an early test Tuesday, winning broad support from a legislative panel as lawmakers look for ways to relieve parental stress by increasing access to childcare. The proposal cleared the Senate Families and Children Committee on a 9-1 vote. The legislation still has several hurdles to clear in the final weeks of this year’s 60-day legislative session. In promoting his bill Tuesday, Republican Sen. Danny Carroll recounted...

22 Feb

Posted at 19:24h in News by

Business Insider
By Jacob Zinkula
February 27, 2024
If you're having a hard time affording childcare, you're not alone. The United States has one of the most expensive childcare systems in the world. That was among the key findings of a new Bank of America report released on February 22, which analyzed how high childcare costs could slow the growth of women in the US workforce. Using data from the OECD, an international economic coalition of 38 countries, Bank of America estimated the average childcare...

20 Feb

Posted at 17:55h in News by

Alliance for Early Success
By Helene Stebbins
February 20, 2024
In 2023, I had the honor of engaging in passionate debates and honest exchanges as part of the Convergence Collaborative on Supports for Working Families—a group of 32 leaders representing different political, ideological, and industry perspectives—that culminated in a rare breakthrough on these issues. Despite our differences, we were united in a belief that government, businesses, and communities can and should do more to help families flourish. The result of our work, In This...

20 Feb

Posted at 00:20h in News by

La Cruces Sun News
By Ernesto Cisneros
February 20, 2024
Childcare workers who want to start a business from home can now take advantage of a free eight-week online training program that is being offered through the Wonderschool Academy in collaboration with the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department (NMECED). The deadline to sign-up is fast approaching. According to a news release, the program offers the chance to learn how to start and maintain a childcare business from home. Participants...

19 Feb

Posted at 00:45h in News by

WyoFile
By Katie Klingsporn
February 19, 2024
Kendra West walked briskly through corridors of the newly expanded child development center she helms, opening classroom door after classroom door. As she proceeded, the pupils graduated from infants on a colorful mat to toddlers making paper crafts to preschool students building skills for kindergarten. She paused outside a classroom of kids mostly under 2, watching a pair of teachers easily wrangle the toddlers to their seats for an art project. “I have an amazing staff,”...

19 Feb

Posted at 00:43h in News by

Forbes
By Tracy Brower, PhD
February 19, 2024
Significant numbers of parents don’t have adequate childcare today—and it’s getting in the way of performance, retention, happiness and fulfillment. These are negative impacts for parents and families, but also for businesses. The problem goes beyond parents to organizations because without adequate childcare, parents (most frequently mothers) are leaving the workforce, pausing their careers and limiting their contributions—forced to choose between work and family priorities. The reality of the talent shortage means companies must be intentional...

04 Feb

Posted at 14:21h in News, Press, Tomorrow's Hope by

The New York Times
By Nikolas Kristof
February 4, 2024
An early child care program modeled after the one that exists in the U.S. military. If our armed forces can operate a child care program with fees based on ability to pay, then the rest of the country can as well. A government-supported early childhood program rescues parents and kids alike. Roughly one child in six is living with a parent who misused drugs in the last year, and some of these children...

30 Jan

Posted at 21:19h in News by

The New York Times
By Claire Cain Miller, Alicia Parlapiano and Margot Sanger-Katz
January 30, 2024
At a time when congressional Democrats and Republicans seem unable to agree on almost anything, they may soon enact an expanded child tax credit, which gives money to parents. The credit, a rare family policy that has support from both parties, is part of a $78 billion tax package that passed the House on Wednesday night with a large bipartisan tally, 357 to 70. It is not guaranteed...

30 Jan

Posted at 20:52h in News by

EdSurge
By Emily Tate Sullivan
January 30, 2024
Last month, business leaders and child care advocates from a handful of states convened on Zoom. Representing Michigan, Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia, they had come together to discuss a new child care model, called “Tri-Share,” that has gained traction across the country, including in their respective regions. The cost-sharing model, in which the state government, the employer and the employee each pay for one-third of the cost of child care, first launched in 2021 in...

29 Jan

Posted at 21:23h in News by

Chalkbeat Chicago
By Reema Amin
January 29, 2024
Public preschool has been a lifeline for Kristen Larson. Larson and her husband couldn’t afford private day care for both their daughters, who are 4 and 1. So last fall, when Larson was able to get a preschool seat just four blocks from their Bridgeport home for her 4-year-old, she was relieved. Without that, she said, “I probably would have had to quit my job.” Thousands of Chicago parents like Larson depend on the district’s free public preschool...

27 Jan

Posted at 21:14h in News by

Bloomberg
By Alice Kantor, Yuko Takeo, Ella Ceron, Catarina Saraiva, Leonardo Lara, and Abeer Abu Omar
January 27, 2024
Around the world, rising inflation is pushing child care costs up to unprecedented levels. Average day care fees went up 6% in 2023 from the previous year, according to mobility company ECA International, while in the US, costs jumped by 9%. Reversing this trend is key to pulling economies out of recession, promoting growth and creating more equitable societies, but so far, many governments...

26 Jan

Posted at 20:49h in News by

Associated Press
By Margery A. Beck
January 26, 2024
Nebraska is looking to follow in the footsteps of Kentucky in implementing a program that covers the costs of child care for child care workers. The idea, presented Friday by Omaha Sen. John Fredrickson to the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee, is that the benefit will draw more workers into the child care industry, which is experiencing dire shortages across the county. Nebraska’s bill would cover 100% of the child care costs for child...

19 Jan

Posted at 22:41h in News, Press by

Berkeley Film Foundation
Media Contact: Andrew Neilly, Nancy Amaral
BERKELEY, Calif., January 18, 2024– The Berkeley FILM Foundation (BFF) has received a $1.5 million grant from the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation (SZCF). The funding over a three-year period will augment BFF’s current grant program to fund local independent film projects, establishes new educational programs focused on filmmaking, and inaugurates the first annual Saul Zaentz Film Festival to be held September 14-15 at the Smith Rafael Film Center in partnership with the California...

16 Jan

Posted at 00:21h in News by

Mass.gov
January 16, 2024
MALDEN — Governor Maura Healey today laid out her administration’s agenda to make early education and child care more affordable and accessible for all families across Massachusetts. The Governor will highlight these programs in her State of the Commonwealth address tomorrow and propose the funding in her Fiscal Year 2025 budget next week. The “Gateway to Pre-K” agenda includes four key components: Delivering universal, high-quality preschool access for four-year-olds in all Gateway Cities by the end of 2026. Every...

10 Jan

Posted at 00:32h in News by

Mass.gov
January 16, 2024
MALDEN — Governor Maura Healey today laid out her administration’s agenda to make early education and child care more affordable and accessible for all families across Massachusetts. The Governor will highlight these programs in her State of the Commonwealth address tomorrow and propose the funding in her Fiscal Year 2025 budget next week. The “Gateway to Pre-K” agenda includes four key components: Delivering universal, high-quality preschool access for four-year-olds in all Gateway Cities by the end of 2026. Every...

19 Dec

Posted at 19:09h in News, Press, Zaentz Initiative by

Early Learning Nation
By Mark Swartz
December 19, 2023
Imagine you work for an advocacy organization in one state and you want to find out how other states are raising revenue to support early education and care. If you Google child care tax revenue or daycare tax payments, almost all the results pertain to the tax credits that individuals can apply for when they file their taxes. Refining your search terms might give you better results, but it might take hours to track...

07 Dec

Posted at 18:48h in News, Press, Stanford by

Stanford University
By Vincent Ingram
December 7, 2023
A generous gift to the Stanford Center on Early Childhood will advance the center’s work in early childhood and accelerate the exchange of expertise among researchers, policymakers, and front-line practitioners. The Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation is providing funding to expand a valuable large-scale data collection tool called the RAPID Survey, which tracks the experiences of young children, their families, and caregivers and is used by practitioners, government systems, and other stakeholders to address critical challenges for...

05 Dec

Posted at 19:59h in News by

KVOA.com
By Myles Standish
December 5, 2023
TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) — A recent study shows Arizona is losing an estimated $4.7 billion per year because of the limited child care for children up to 5 years old. ReadyNation Arizona released the report Tuesday at The Sandbox Early Learning Center in Tucson. It was funded by the Helios Education Foundation. The lack of available, accessible, affordable child care wreaks havoc on parents’ work lives, with 70 percent of parents surveyed reporting that access to child care...