Happy Groundhog Day! Unfortunately, just like Bill Murray's day in the movie, things seem to be repeating themselves. Child care workers continue to be at the bottom of the wage scale of the civilian workforce, earning barely more than fast food cooks, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A Child Trends Report provides...
The New Yorker magazine had a lengthy piece a few weeks ago on a novel experiment in Providence, RI. It was titled The Talking Cure: The poorer parents are, the less they talk with their children. The mayor of Providence is trying to close the “word gap.” It is well worth the read. The program is based on extensive research and is...
President Obama proposed greatly expanded child care tax credits in his State of the Union address January 20, 2015. Right after the address, NBC analyst Chuck Todd predicted that the child care tax credit proposal is one of three proposals by the President most likely to pass in Congress. Wow, maybe this has a chance! Here are the...
Federal officials recently released the 2015 Federal Poverty Income Guidelines, better known as the federal poverty levels (FPL). States and the federal government use the guidelines to determine eligibility for many public assistance programs, such as Medicaid, BadgerCare and child care subsidies. The following three tables show how...
President Obama last month announced his plan to invest $4 billion in expanding early education for children. In the meantime Zero to Three -- a national advocacy organization and member of the newly launched Invest in Us campaign -- rallied its own team around the need to ensure babies are a substantive part of that equation. "There...
Kudos to Senator Grassley for his leadership in pushing reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA). This much needed update of the federal act does not solve some of the problems related to increasing funding for federal and state efforts, and a recent push by Senator Grassley to further investigate...
YoungStar was launched with the goal of significantly improving the quality of child care, particularly focused on children from low-income families. Early results are promising. But is it feasible that YoungStar can dramatically increase the number of high-quality early childhood programs with sustainable financing? What are the key...
You may recall that Sen. Whitehouse and Sen. Grassley introduced a bill to reauthorize the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) late in the last congressional session. But, clearly Sen. Grassley, now in the majority, is being a leading voice in promoting JJDPA reauthorization, on a strong bi-partisan basis, in the new...
You may recall that Sen. Whitehouse and Sen. Grassley introduced a bill to reauthorize the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) late in the last congressional session. But, clearly Sen. Grassley, now in the majority, is being a leading voice in promoting JJDPA reauthorization, on a strong bi-partisan basis, in the new...
Tonight Governor Walker delivers his State the State address. He is expected to talk about his vision of where Wisconsin should be headed, outline his priorities for his second term, and describe how he thinks the state should move forward economically. Traditionally, governors haven’t used the State of the State address to focus on the...
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