Better get ready for a battle if you value federal support for poor and low-income families and their children. According to a recent article by the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), House and Senate Budget Makes Wrong Choices, large cuts to important progress are proposed: “While programs for low- and moderate-income people...
Wisconsin is 6th in the nation in four-year-old access to state-funded preschool education, according to the annual state Pre-K report for 2014, released by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER). The survey found that 49,687 four-year-olds were enrolled...
If you have followed the travails of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) you know that I have written about the “twists and turns” that have resulted from concerns about compliance monitoring, with Wisconsin being the “highlight” (or perhaps lowlight) of the discussion. My comments really focused on making sure...
Objective: To return jurisdiction over first-time, non-violent 17-year-old offenders to the juvenile court, making our communities safer and resulting in substantial savings from reduced costs of law enforcement, court processing, and losses to victims. Background: With the adoption of the Juvenile Code in 1996, the age of adult court...
There are lots of reasons why Wisconsin should expand BadgerCare, but a graph in a Kaiser Commission report issued last week makes it especially clear. That bar graph, shown below, vividly illustrates that from a budget perspective no other state has nearly as much to gain as Wisconsin from expanding Medicaid coverage for low-income...
Children and families won a big victory when the Congress voted for a two-year extension of home visiting programs. The home visiting program, officially known as the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Visiting (MIECHV Program), supports voluntary, evidence-based, home visiting services for families with young children. Current annual...
Fox Valley leaders have launched the Community Early Learning Center (CELC) in Appleton, with a mission to “ensure that by age 5, all our children have the foundation to achieve their full potential.” The multi-agency center focuses on the families of young children and those serving them, with a unique range of organizations serving...
Lots of state governors, both Republicans and Democrats, are talking about Early Care and Education. Including those in our neighboring states of Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, and Indiana. But not the governor of Wisconsin. From the National Women's Law Center: April 22, 2015 A total of 27 governors (14 Democrats and 13 Republicans)...
On April 21, the Senate held an oversight hearing to address concerns about OJJDP's process for monitoring compliance with the four core protections in the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act most recently authorized in 2002. Wisconsin has been at the center of the firestorm, and the hearing was no less disconcerting as to...
Wisconsin ranks 44th nationally in state per capita spending on public health, according to a new report by the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH): The $13.03 that Wisconsin spent per capita on public health in fiscal year 2013-14 is less than half (42%) of the national average of $31.06. Only six other states spent less per capita for...
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