The COVID-19 pandemic’s dramatic impact on the Early Childhood Education (ECE) workforce and subsequent funds made available through the American Rescue Plan Act have created an opportunity to build ECE workforce capacity and create evidence-based improvements to the system. The Urban Institute’s Young Scholars program identified several opportunities within the ECE system, including recognizing the… Read more »
Category: Workforce
Illinois announces $200 Million investment for early childhood workers
Posted by Andy Colvin (Staff Admin) & filed under .
Illinois recently passed into law HB 2878, which uses $200 million in federal funds to provide training, mentorship programs, and scholarships for child care workers to pursue further education over the next two years. The bill also establishes a statewide early childhood education consortium to improve access and direct funding. #covid-19 #childcare #workforce #racialequity
Reducing the Black-white racial wealth gap will require dedicated and comprehensive policy solutions
Posted by Andy Colvin (Staff Admin) & filed under .
A new issue brief from the Center for American Progress examines the Black/white wealth gap and summarizes a set of proposals and policy actions to address the gap. Some recommendations include allowing the U.S. Postal Service to conduct banking services to increase community access; investing in research and development opportunities for Black innovators and inventors;… Read more »
How to stabilize infant and toddler care with pandemic relief funds
Posted by Andy Colvin (Staff Admin) & filed under .
A new fieldnote published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston describes possibilities for using funds from the Child Care Stabilization portion of the American Rescue Plan Act to stabilize infant and toddler care. One option includes issuing grants to child care providers that could subsidize the operational cost of infant/toddler care to align the… Read more »
California child care workers union enters contract
Posted by Andy Colvin (Staff Admin) & filed under .
California Governor Gavin Newsom has ratified a contract with Child Care Providers United, a first-of-its-kind child care labor union covering 40,000 California child care providers—largely women and often women of color—who provide subsidized child care across the state. The union is working to advocate for higher subsidy rates, more and better training, and a higher… Read more »
Subsidizing child care costs would reduce poverty and enhance equity among New England families
Posted by Andy Colvin (Staff Admin) & filed under .
New research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the Carsey School of Public Policy explores how proposed policies to cap child care expenses based on family income would affect poverty rates among New England families. Using the Supplemental Poverty Measure, the brief finds that such a policy could reduce poverty among New Englanders… Read more »
Push to incentivize New Englanders to return to work continues
Posted by Andy Colvin (Staff Admin) & filed under .
As multiple industries face a hiring crunch, New England business leaders are seeking support from the state to incentivize workers and address the labor shortage. #covid-19 #workforce
“Remote work won’t save the heartland”
Posted by Andy Colvin (Staff Admin) & filed under .
Enabled by more available remote work options, the COVID-19 pandemic spurred both employees and employers to flee cities in favor of more rural locations. Yet a new post from Brookings finds that rather than redistributing economic opportunity evenly nationwide, most companies are simply relocating to secondary tech hub cities like Austin, Denver, and Nashville, rather… Read more »
Remote work and child care closures hasten need to revamp fragile child care system
Posted by Andy Colvin (Staff Admin) & filed under .
A Bipartisan Policy Center report describes new survey results assessing how parents’ work arrangements are interacting with their child care needs. Results suggest that 81 percent of working parents with children under 5 who have the option to work remote are utilizing that option. Most parents (60 percent) would like to keep this option to… Read more »
Pandemic impacts review finds decline in ECCE program enrollment, setbacks to young child learning and development
Posted by Andy Colvin (Staff Admin) & filed under .
The University of Michigan and the Urban Institute have partnered to synthesize the pandemic’s effects on young children and on the early childhood care and education (ECCE) programs that serve them. Reviewing 63 studies on COVID-19 and early childhood disruptions, the authors find consistent documentation of ECCE enrollment declines, a mix of in-person and remote… Read more »