Starting at Zero Podcast is LAUNCHED!

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08 Jun

Posted at 22:56h in News, Press, Zaentz Initiative by

Early Learning Nation
By Mark Swartz
June 8, 2023
In 1999, addressing AmeriCorps members on the program’s fifth anniversary, President Bill Clinton said, “There is no question that you are now an indispensable force for change in America.” The same year, when Kristi Givens went into the child care profession, she didn’t know she would someday cross paths with the national service program. The proprietor of three child care centers in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward, Givens is cofounder with Rochelle Wilcox—a child care...

05 Jun

Posted at 22:40h in News by

KTTN News
June 5, 2023
Missourians scored some big wins for child care and pre-K programs in the 2023 legislative session, although some said it is just a start. Brian Schmidt, executive director of the group Kids Win Missouri, called it a “really exciting time” for child care and early childhood education in the state. He attributes a lot of the legislative gains, including a combined $160 million for childcare subsidies and pre-K programs, to the childcare crisis exacerbated by the COVID pandemic....

31 May

Posted at 22:46h in News by

New America
By Aaron Loewenberg
May 30, 2023
Back in February, we published a blog post highlighting four states poised to enact impactful early childhood education legislation. One of the four states we mentioned was Vermont due to momentum there in expanding child care subsidy eligibility, increasing provider reimbursement rates, and expanding access to pre-K for four-year-olds. Today, Vermont is on the brink of adding more than $120 million per year into their child care sector after the Vermont House and Senate passed...

31 May

Posted at 21:53h in News by

MPR News
By Elizabeth Shockman
May 31, 2023
Minnesota is putting more than $300 million in new spending toward early childhood initiatives, including early learning scholarships for low-income families, grow-your-own educator grants and a new state agency dedicated to youth and families. While Minnesota’s K-12 education system is overseen by the Minnesota Department of Education and funded to the tune of $23 billion, current early education funding and programming is overseen and funded through two different agencies: the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)...

27 May

Posted at 22:47h in News by

Chalkbeat Chicago
By Samantha Smylie
May 27, 2023
Early Saturday morning, Illinois lawmakers passed the 2024 budget with increases in funding for K-12 public schools, early childhood education, and college-bound students. The House pass the budget with a vote of 73 to 38. State legislators passed the $50.6 billion budget with a $570 million increase in K-12 spending, $250 million more for early childhood education, and over $100 million to support students heading to college and those who want to become teachers. The...

26 May

Posted at 22:51h in News by

Politico
By Eleanor Mueller
May 26, 2023
As debate over the debt ceiling continues to divide Capitol Hill, a small subset of bipartisan lawmakers are quietly banding together on a different issue: child care. Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) are preparing to launch the Congressional Bipartisan Affordable Childcare Caucus, they tell Women Rule. Their hope: to excavate a shared path forward on making child care more affordable after Democrats slashed related provisions from their party-line spending package last year. “The goal...

24 May

Posted at 00:14h in News by

Bipartisan Policy Center
By Linda Smith, Jason Sabo, Lisa Kerber
May 22, 2023
This blueprint tells the tale of two states and how each are defying expectations within the realm of early childhood policy. Policymakers and legislators from both sides of the aisle, advocates, community organizers, parents, and philanthropists can borrow from the work of New Mexico and Alabama to expand access to quality child care. New Mexico is on the road to making child care a public good, like public education, and working...

24 May

Posted at 00:09h in News by

Vox
By Rachel M. Cohen
May 22, 2023
Action in Congress to support child care has been stalled for years. But in Vermont, lawmakers have just approved an ambitious plan that would pour tens of millions of new dollars into the state’s starved child care system. The bill authorizing $125 million in annual investment comes after nearly a decade of organizing. As in many states, thousands of Vermont kids lack access to any child care program, and among families that have been able to...

03 May

Posted at 16:24h in News, Press, Zaentz Initiative by

Cision PR Newswire
News Provided By The Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative
May 1, 2023
BOSTON, May 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education has announced the winners of its 2023 Zaentz Early Education Innovation Challenge. Now in its fourth year, the Challenge recognizes promising new ideas and strategic approaches that have the potential to transform early education. On April 27, 2023, 11 finalists pitched their ideas to a panel of judges and a...

25 Apr

Posted at 19:30h in News by

MIT News
By Peter Dizikesarchive
April 25, 2023
Children who attend preschool at age four are significantly more likely to go to college, according to an empirical study led by MIT economist Parag Pathak. To conduct the study, Pathak and his colleagues followed more than 4,000 students who took part from 1997 to 2003 in a lottery the Boston public school system conducted to allocate a limited number of preschool slots. The lottery created a natural experiment, allowing the researchers to track the educational outcomes...

23 Apr

Posted at 19:00h in News by

Insider
By Juliana Kaplan and Madison Hoff
April 23, 2023
At childcare centers and schools, workers have been quitting for better pay and because of burnout, among other reasons. It's adding to to the childcare industry's ongoing cycle of workers leaving over hard conditions, squeezing centers and parents even more, as the whole operation struggles to stay afloat. Workers are begging for help. "We really need help. We need government to step in," Cynthia Dahl, the head of Lighthouse Montessori School in Seattle, told Insider. "It...

31 Mar

Posted at 18:14h in News by

Chalkbeat Chicago
By Samantha Smylie
March 31, 2023
Chicago’s youngest residents cannot vote for the city’s next mayor, but their parents can. As Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas face off in an April 4 runoff election to become the city’s next mayor, both have promised to support early childhood education and provide families with accessible and affordable options for high-quality child care. Johnson said he would focus on affordable child care and increasing wages for staff, while Vallas’ plan would support children from birth...

30 Mar

Posted at 23:52h in News by

Early Learning Nation
By Bruno J. Navarro
March 29, 2023
The number of investor-backed, for-profit child care chains in the United States has been growing in recent years, creating additional strains on the industry—and families—that go beyond the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new research brief. If it continues unabated, the trend would make it more difficult for families to access affordable child care across the country, writes Elliot Haspel, author of the book “Crawling Behind: America’s Child Care Crisis...

30 Mar

Posted at 23:40h in News by

The Washington Post
By Tara Bahrampour
March 30, 2023
Alicia Morales Escobar had taught infants and toddlers for years before the District passed a law requiring her to earn a college degree to continue doing her job. “I was thinking it would be impossible for me,” said Morales Escobar, 44, who works at Briya Public Charter School in Adams Morgan. With two of her own children to raise, the strain compounded by a pandemic and the death of her brother from a stroke, she...

29 Mar

Posted at 23:49h in News by

The New York Times
By Emma G. Fitzsimmons
March 29, 2023
When Eric Adams ran for mayor, one of his key policy proposals was to create a better website for New Yorkers to access government services. Concluding his 15th month in office, Mr. Adams has introduced the first phase of the website, which is called MyCity, calling the project “my baby” and “my dream.” Initially, it will allow people to apply for child-care assistance. Eventually, it will connect New Yorkers to additional programs. “It’s user-friendly,...

28 Mar

Posted at 23:31h in News by

Chalkbeat Colorado
By Erica Meltzer
March 28, 2023
It will be another month before Colorado families know where they can send their children for preschool under the state’s new universal preschool program. Families were supposed to learn which programs they had matched with on Thursday. But on Tuesday, officials with Colorado’s Department of Early Childhood announced they plan to tell families on April 26. As reported by Chalkbeat, more than 20 education and early childhood groups had asked the state to push back initial...

27 Mar

Posted at 17:17h in News by

Texas A&M Today
By Ruben Hidalgo
March 20, 2023
Texas A&M University is strengthening its commitment to supporting Texans’ education at all stages of life with the launch of the Texas A&M Institute for Early Childhood Development & Education. Housed in the School of Education and Human Development (SEHD), the institute will be the most comprehensive institute of its kind in the state, involving faculty, students, centers and clinics across the campus and state. Its multi-disciplinary approach leverages faculty across engineering, nutrition, health, policy,...

24 Mar

Posted at 23:36h in News by

Boston Globe
By Samantha J. Gross
March 24, 2023
Federal grant money designed to help child care facilities weather the pandemic’s upheaval was a lifeline for Ellen Dietrick, who runs a child care center in Needham, where high housing costs made it difficult to attract and retain staffers. But now, she and similar child care providers, which care only for children whose parents can pay out of pocket, could be cut out of a state program designed to take over when the federal...

21 Mar

Posted at 22:51h in News by

The Hill
By Kali Thorne Ladd
March 21, 2023
As businesses around the country struggle to hire the teams they need to grow, part of the solution lies in early childhood education.  What do child care and business growth have in common? Everything, as I told lawmakers I met on the Hill last week.  Even before the pandemic, an estimated half of all American families lived in “child care deserts,” communities where there simply is not enough child care to meet demands.  We lost thousands more child...

18 Mar

Posted at 23:18h in News by

News WTTW
By Erica Gunderson
March 18, 2023
For the most part, free public education in the U.S. starts at the kindergarten level, when children are around age 5. But research continues to reveal just how critical the first few years after birth are to long-term outcomes. Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed Smart Start program would allow an additional 5,000 kids to go to preschool next year, eventually adding a total of 20,000 slots. The plan would also add money to increase wages for...