Elliot's Provocations Archives - Early Learning Nation

Elliot’s Provocations: Where Have All the Child Care Lobbyists Gone?

Elliot Haspel·Apr 4, 2023·4 min read

Last month, I wrote about how child care’s lack of salience in the public imagination is holding back its political opportunities. The absence of mass public pressure is one piece of the puzzle. Another piece is that by and large, child care lacks a strong inside game.

Elliot’s Provocations: Five Early Learning Trends for 2023

Elliot Haspel·Jan 4, 2023·6 min read

Happy New Year! As 2023 kicks off, I wanted to highlight five early learning trends to be watching this year.

Elliot’s Provocations: When the Waters Rise on Child Care Programs

Elliot Haspel·May 2, 2023·5 min read

If you’ve been following my work for the past year, you know I am deeply concerned about how unprepared our child- and family-serving systems are for this new reality. I’m not the only one. A new report puts a fine point on why early care & education stakeholders need to have a climate strategy, and why public officials need to have ECE in their climate strategy: a staggering number of child care programs are under threat.

Elliot’s Provocations: Child Care Lessons from Ireland

Elliot Haspel·Oct 4, 2022·5 min read

Elliot’s Provocations unpacks current events in the early learning world and explores how we can chart a path to a...

States, Time to Step Up on Child Care

Elliot Haspel·Mar 1, 2022·8 min read

Elliot’s Provocations unpacks current events in the early learning world and explores how we can chart a path to a...

Congress Takes Another Run at a Child Care Solution

Elliot Haspel·May 31, 2022·4 min read

The U.S. child care system falls deeper into crisis with every passing day. The sector is still missing 100,000 educators compared to before the pandemic, and amid a competitive labor market, the staffing recovery has slowed to a crawl.

Elliot’s Provocations: “When You Care” Illuminates the Philosophy of Caregiving

Elliot Haspel·May 9, 2024·9 min read

In our talk of care, we frequently focus on questions of where, who and what. We rarely ask questions of why we care and what it means to care. Similarly, much of the modern care conversation centers around (very real!) struggles and scarcity. That’s why I was so pleased to read journalist Elissa Strauss’ new book, When You Care: The Unexpected Magic of Caring for Others.

School Readiness and the Tyranny of Merit, Part 1

Elliot Haspel·Aug 2, 2022·11 min read

While we see the tyranny of merit most active in K-12 and higher education, school readiness is the Trojan horse through which it has breached the world of early childhood.

Elliot’s Provocations: In a Year of Unions Flexing Power, Child Care is a Question Mark

Elliot Haspel·Oct 3, 2023·4 min read

Amid major union actions in the auto and entertainment industries and a historic looming strike by health care workers, I want to talk about the role of unions in child care.

Elliot’s Provocations: Summertime, Summertime (Child Care) Sadness

Elliot Haspel·Jun 6, 2024·4 min read

I wrote last year about the strange schism between early child care and school-aged child care, and I don’t want to belabor the point other than to say parents of school-aged children represent a shockingly untapped care constituency. Instead, I want to talk about summer care, and summer camp specifically.

How Congress Can Still Save Child Care

Elliot Haspel·Sep 1, 2022·4 min read

While there is much to celebrate about the Inflation Reduction Act, one group was left on the outside looking in: parents with young children.

Elliot’s Provocations: Employer-Sponsored Child Care is a Wrong Turn

Elliot Haspel·Nov 1, 2022·7 min read

As I travel internationally, I have been thinking a lot about how we position child care in the United States. I am increasingly concerned by an ascendant school of thought that emphasizes a role for employer-sponsored child care benefits.

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