Child Care

I just returned from a week in Finland, where I went with several other education writers to learn about their education system. Finnish 15-year-olds lead the world on the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessments (PISA), and we wanted to learn how and why that’s possible, and what the American education system can learn from Finland’s example. While the answers to those questions are far from simple, it’s clear that high quality early childhood education programs are a part of Finland’s success.

• Economy Affecting Arizona Preschools, Child Care Karina Bland, Arizona Republic (November 28, 2008)
• Child Care Costs a Concern with Down Economy NACCRRA Early Childhood Focus (November 20, 2008)
• The Littlest Victims of the Mortgage Crisis Brigid Schulte, Washington Post (November 17, 2008)
• Day Care Enrollment Falls in Tight Economy Mike Markewinski, KSHB-TV (November 15, 2008)
• Parents Pull Kids From Day Care as Money Tightens Don Babwin, Associated Press (Novmber 10, 2008)
• Preschool and Daycare Enrollment Down Bonnie Obremski, Locally Grown (November 4, 2008)

Early Ed Watch is pleased to feature this guest post by Catherine Graham Hildum. Hildum covered early childhood issues for the Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families during the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and currently works with Linchpin Strategies, a policy consulting firm in Washington, D.C.

In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita brought to light the lack of a federally coordinated mechanism for assisting young children in the wake of a disaster. FEMA estimated that more than 270,000 evacuees on the Gulf coast of the United States spent time in evacuation centers after the hurricanes. This figure does not specify the number of young children or account for all of the children displaced from their childcare and early education settings. All of the affected children had both short-term health and safety needs and longer-term safety, stability and mental health needs. During fall 2005 and after, disaster relief efforts focused on getting people back in safe housing, back to work and children back to school. What was missing from these efforts was attention to the critical role that appropriate care for young children plays in allowing adults to relocate, rebuild and work.

Yesterday we reported on Pre-K Now's annual report card on state legislative action on pre-k. Overall, the picture that report offered was cautiously positive--states are increasing investment in pre-k, though not as impressively in previous years, even as economic problems tighten state budgets.

A report from the National Women's Leadership Center, released today, paints a much uglier picture of state progress on child care. Most states, NWLC reports, have made no progress on improving child care access, affordability, or quality since 2001, or have in fact fallen behind. Half of states have lowered income elibility limits for childcare subsidies (as a percentage of federal poverty) since 2001. For families that do quality, about half of states require child care copayments that are greater, as a share of families incomes, than what they required in 2001. In at least one-third of states, the copay that parents receiving childcare subsidies must pay is greater, as a percentage of family income, than what the average family in the state pays for childcare. And states are also lowballing reimbursement rates for childcare providers--only 10 states reimbursed providers at federally recommended levels in 2008, less than half the number that did so in 2001.

According to the language that established it, the Children's Trust in Miami-Dade County must be renewed in this Tuesday's primary elections by county voters. The trust dedicates 50 cents of every $1,000 in assessed property value to improving the lives of children. The money goes to child care, parent counseling, and school health teams. It has bipartisan support. What could be the problem?

Poor ballot design. In several Dade County precincts, the measure to reauthorize the Children's Trust has been placed on the back of the ballot. So voters will have to turn over their ballot to find it. Let's hope they do. Or this could be another major disaster for Florida election officials.

Yesterday we explored Senator Hillary Clinton’s early education agenda. Today, we’re taking a look at Senator Barack Obama’s early education proposals.

Focusing on Zero-to-Five

The centerpiece of Barack Obama’s early education agenda would be a new program of Early Learning Challenge Grants, which would provide states with funding to support quality child care, early education, and other services for pregnant women and children from birth through age five. States could use Early Learning Challenge Grant funds to support voluntary, high-quality preschool programs for three- and four-year olds, but universal pre-k is not the central focus of Obama’s early education strategy. Instead, states would be given flexibility in how they choose to expand quality pre-k and other early education programs.

Yesterday, we asked why there hasn't been more attention focused on early education issues so far in this election cycle, noting that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have released detailed and ambitious early education agendas. Today we'll explore Senator Clinton's early education agenda. Tomorrow we'll look at Senator Obama's early education plan.

Supporting High-Quality Universal Pre-K

The centerpiece of Senator Clinton's early education agenda is her Universal Pre-k Plan, which her campaign rolled out nearly a year ago as her first major education policy proposal and one of her earliest big policy releases. Senator Clinton's plan would provide grants to states to establish high-quality pre-k programs. In order to receive funds states would have to: