Research has shown that the first five years play an enormous role in a child’s ongoing development and future success. Since most kids are in a child care or preschool setting while their parents are at work, it’s critical that we invest in a high-quality early education system that provides the experiences kids need for healthy development.
House Plans Would Cut Even More than the Anticipated $6.5 Billion in FY 2013The broad federal budget cuts known as sequestration will begin in January to make deep cuts in federal funding for services to kids. A new two-page fact sheet by First Focus summarizes the expected $6.5 billion of cuts to programs affecting children. The...
That’s the question facing state officials and early childhood advocates this summer.Good NewsHaving just missed getting a Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grant in 2011, Wisconsin is now one of five states invited to apply for up to $22.7 million, half of the amount the state applied for in 2012. In the 1st round, the nine...
Even though the child care subsidy budget (Wisconsin Shares) was reduced by more than $100 million in the last budget, from $402.5 million in State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2010-11 to $301.6 million in SFY 2011-12, it looks like there will be underspending this year.Anticipated Underspending in SFY 2012As the first year of the biennial budget...
Our attentive readers responded to our question: What do you think is causing this significant decline in regulated family child care services?Here are the seven top reasons our readers thought were contributing to the decline of regulated family child care programs.1. More requirements and tighter enforcementReaders wrote about the...
State Government is not Keeping Its Promises to our Public Schools Tom Beebe, Outreach CoordinatorOpportunity to Learn - Wisconsin In today’s global environment, students in Wisconsin are no longer competing just with those in nearby school districts or states, but rather with kids all over the world. That’s why it’s now more critical...
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