Starting at Zero Podcast is LAUNCHED!

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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...

18 Mar

Posted at 23:10h in News by

NBC San Diego
By Amber Frias
March 18, 2023
Child care and early education programs are a crucial part of children’s well-being and necessary for many families who have to work. According to the most recent data from the Kids Count Data Center, around two-thirds of children under the age of six in the U.S. have both parents in the labor force. The people who care for children are one of the main factors in quality early education, yet they rarely feel acknowledged as such. Sandra...

18 Mar

Posted at 23:08h in News by

The Wall Street Journal
By Harriet Torry
March 18, 2023
Many lower-income Americans who left the workforce when the pandemic began three years ago are staying on the sidelines because of a lack of child care, a factor contributing to worker shortages and historically low unemployment. An estimated 380,000 Americans in their prime working years, aged 25 to 54, held jobs before the pandemic but no longer did late last year, according to estimates from Bank of America. Bank economists said the lack of...

18 Mar

Posted at 17:58h in News, Tomorrow's Hope by

WTTW
By Erica Gunderson
March 18, 2023
The Robert Taylor Homes in Bronzeville were at one point the largest public housing development in the country. As many as 27,000 families lived in the buildings, which were demolished in the late 1990s. But even amid the chaos that characterized the last decades of the Robert Taylor Homes, an ambitious early education program helped the children who lived there flourish. “We decided that we’re going to bring the services where the people are,” said Portia Kennel...

17 Mar

Posted at 23:27h in News by

NPR WFYI
By Adam Yahya Rayes and Sydney Dauphinais
March 17, 2023
Families across Indiana lack access to child care. Several bills were introduced this legislative session that aim to make child care more affordable and widespread. Yet all seven bills failed to advance in the Statehouse despite broad support from employer and welfare groups as well as lawmakers of both parties. The latest state data available, from Early Learning Indiana in 2019, shows Indiana only has the capacity to serve around 44 percent...

16 Mar

Posted at 23:02h in News by

Chalkbeat Philadelphia
By Carly Sitrin
March 16, 2023
Citing “inadequate” wages and warning of an impending mass exodus from the field, early childhood education advocates in Philadelphia and statewide say their sector is “on the brink of a breakdown.” Those advocates are urging state lawmakers and Gov. Josh Shapiro to add more funding for childcare and early childhood education in the state budget this year. Without more money, they say employees will leave, programs will close, and children, families, and businesses in Pennsylvania will...

15 Mar

Posted at 22:50h in News by

Politico
By Madina Toure
March 15, 2023
The New York City Department of Education has received more than 40,000 applications for 3K — early childhood education for three-year-olds — amid parent demand for the program, the agency told the City Council on Wednesday. There were 42,000 3K applications, compared to 33,000 in 2021 — a 27 percent increase, according to Kara Ahmed, the DOE’s deputy chancellor of early childhood education. Pre-K applications are also up, approximately 54,000 applications, compared to 50,000 last year. Schools...

15 Mar

Posted at 17:33h in News, Zaentz Initiative by

Early Learning Nation
By Mark Swartz
March 15, 2023
Early education advocates cheered when President Biden’s State of the Union address noted that children who attend preschool are nearly 50% more likely to finish high school and go on to earn a two- or four-year degree, no matter their background. Shortly after the speech, Early Learning Nation magazine (ELN) spoke to Nonie K. Lesaux, co-director of the Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, about seizing this momentum and informing policy through research....

09 Mar

Posted at 17:49h in News by

Business Insider
By Juliana Kaplan and Ayelet Sheffey
March 9, 2023
Right now, the US is one of just six countries without paid leave. President Joe Biden wants to change that with his next budget through mandating time off — and making childcare cheaper across the country. In his budget for fiscal year 2024, Biden is proposing establishing a national paid family and medical leave program, which would give workers up to 12 weeks off to tend for a newborn, recover, or care for a family...

09 Mar

Posted at 17:45h in News by

Education Week
By Libby Stanford
March 9, 2023
President Joe Biden hopes to expand funding for high-need schools, early childhood education, and students with disabilities in the next fiscal year. The president released his 2024 budget proposal Thursday, requesting $90 billion to fund education, a $10.8 billion increase from the Education Department’s budget for fiscal 2023, which started last fall. In a March 9 speech about his spending priorities, Biden focused on preschool, including a proposed program that aims to provide all 4-year-olds with...

09 Mar

Posted at 17:40h in News by

Ed Source
By Karen D'Souza
March 9, 2023
President Biden’s 2024 budget plan aims to boost childcare and early childhood education funding by billions of dollars, as Reuters reported. The proposal, which Biden will deliver to Congress today, revisits key items from the president’s 2023 budget proposal that were later removed during negotiations with Congress. However, prospects may well be even slimmer this year, as Reuters noted, given the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. The White House argues that lack of access to childcare is...

08 Mar

Posted at 17:53h in News by

NPR WFYI
By Sydney Dauphinais
March 8, 2023
Early Learning Indiana announced a new initiative Wednesday to expand early childhood education across the state. The Early Years Initiative is a grant program for organizations that serve children from ages zero to three. The program makes $50 million available for eligible social service providers, child care providers, and nonprofits across the state that serve young children’s developmental needs. “We have a real opportunity to help children get started on the right foundation,” said Maureen Weber, CEO...

08 Mar

Posted at 16:57h in News by

EdSource
By Karen D'Souza
March 8, 2023
Toddlers are famous for throwing tantrums, stomping their feet and screaming as tears roll down their chubby cheeks. It’s par for the course of life as a preschool teacher, child care worker or parent that you will have to cope with your fair share of developmentally-appropriate misbehavior, including hitting and biting. And yet not all small children get the benefit of the doubt when they act up in class or on the playground. Some of them...