Cast in America as a pay-to-play system with limited public funding, child care has long struggled with issues like difficult budgetary math, low educator pay, and highly variable quality. An unprecedented degree of investor activity is creating a cascade of risks for the sector, risks which threaten the path toward an inclusive child care system which works well for all children, parents, and early educators.
Gas, Groceries, Homeownership Opportunities and Kids’ Extracurriculars
What D.C.’s Early Childhood Educators Stand to Lose with the D.C. Pay Equity Fund Salary Cuts
Briyana Holloway remembers the shock when she saw her new paycheck. It was January 2024, and the Early Childhood Pay...
Home-based child care is a fact of life in the U.S. On any given day, millions of children spend their...
My conversation with the Center for Playful Inquiry’s Susan Harris MacKay and Matt Karlsen ignited an intense curiosity about how...
According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, 3% of U.S. children are in kinship care. This could be an aunt...
Growing the Pipeline of Early Childhood Educators
Neighborhood Villages Apprenticeship Program Graduates First Cohort and Continues to Grow
Cassandra Antoine always knew she wanted to work with children. Her goal was to open her own child care center,...
On March 19, the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (CGLR) hosted a discussion titled “Investing in the Future,” exploring the role...
Seedlings in the Garden: Childhood Food Sovereignty and the Push to Reclaim Indigenous Foodways
After their food systems were systematically destroyed, America’s Indian Tribes are teaching their children the importance of healthy diets through agricultural education
Every weekday morning, Nichole Efird greets her students with a hug and the promise of another adventure. With a curriculum...
What Inspires You to Work on Behalf of Young Children?
Celebrating the Week of the Young Child, April 6-12
Every week is the Week of the Young Child at Early Learning Nation magazine. The National Association for the Education...
How to Citizen is all about how to fix democracy, something that many Americans feel is deeply if not permanently broken. Early Learning Nation magazine interviewed Thurston, who also hosts America Outdoors on PBS, and gained insight into how he thinks about interpersonal and global issues alike.
Some States Have Avoided the Child Care Cliff
By Keeping Investment Going, About a Dozen States Have Kept Providers Open and Tuition Increases Down.
The federal American Rescue Plan Act, signed into law in early 2022, sent the child care sector the single largest...
There is a concept, variously used in science and business, known as the “valley of death.” In essence, this is the dangerous period between research & development and on-the-ground adoption where many ideas and ventures fail.