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Child Care Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on our already fragile child care system. Providers have closed, others are struggling, and everyone it seems is realizing that without child care, America can’t get back to work. (Yes, child care is infrastructure.) Early Learning Nation is covering the field with rigor and nuance from a historical perspective (Universal Child Care was a great success during WWII), to the latest legislative proposals and to ways that we must transform the way we treat our undervalued and largely unseen child care workforce.

Opinion: Raising Child Care Ratios is a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Idea

Elliot Haspel·March 15, 2022·3 min read

One of “Aesop’s Fables” goes like this: “A group of pigeons, terrified by the appearance of a Kite, called upon...

Bringing Unlicensed Care out of the Shadows

Mark Swartz·January 13, 2022·3 min read

Experts and officials often talk about “child care deserts” to describe regions without enough formal child care, but Maki Park...

Great Beginnings in the Great Plains: Communities for Kids Builds Nebraska’s Child Care Infrastructure, Cultivates All Community Stakeholders

Mark Swartz·January 11, 2022·3 min read

Marti Beard is a fifth-generation rancher in addition to being vice president of Early Childhood Programs of Nebraska Children and...

Build Back Better Helps, Not Hurts, Faith-Based Child Care

Critics are Overselling the Changes While Religious Programs Fight for Their Lives

Elliot Haspel·December 2, 2021·7 min read

While the investments in early care and education appear broadly safe, one unresolved design question concerns what should be required of child care programs operated by faith communities.

OPINION: Three Evidence-Based Ways to Support the Early Care and Education Workforce

JoAnn Hsueh·October 21, 2021·3 min read

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated inequities and fragilities inherent in existing child care markets and decimated the supply of child care...

Martha’s Vineyard: Child Care Solutions for a Picturesque Locale

Mark Swartz·October 20, 2021·4 min read

Martha’s Vineyard, an island south of Cape Cod, Mass., has long been known as a resort community for prosperous Black families as well as a gathering place for Democratic Party leaders and supporters. There’s more to the picture, however, than summertime wealth and power. A recent report based on the American Communities Survey described “a continuing housing crisis and some of the deeply ingrained inequality affecting the rest of the country.”

Child Care Crisis

Opinion: Raising Child Care Ratios is a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Idea

Bringing Unlicensed Care out of the Shadows

Great Beginnings in the Great Plains: Communities for Kids Builds Nebraska’s Child Care Infrastructure, Cultivates All Community Stakeholders

Build Back Better Helps, Not Hurts, Faith-Based Child Care

OPINION: Three Evidence-Based Ways to Support the Early Care and Education Workforce

Martha’s Vineyard: Child Care Solutions for a Picturesque Locale

OPINION: Families Are in Crisis. Business, Government and Philanthropy All Need to Step Up

Preschool Expulsions Shine Light on Inadequate Pay, Lack of Resources, Absence of Support Systems

The Raising Child Care Fund: Centering the Most Impacted Voices

Michigan’s First of Its Kind Program Shares Child Care Costs Between the State, Employers and Employees

Elliot’s Provocations: Voter Support for Child Care Is Sky-High Yet Butter-Soft

5 Questions for the Governor: Oklahoma’s Kevin Stitt

Author Bruce Perry and the Neuroscience Insights We Need Today

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