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Early Learning
Topic

Child Care

Child care has emerged as a key issue in the national discourse. The essential sector has long been in crisis. Families often can’t find or afford the childcare they need, child care workers often face poverty wages and young children, at a formative stage in brain development, often lack the resources and support necessary to spark their intellectual growth.
Commentary
April 27, 2022

How to restore California’s ailing child care system: Pay the teachers

Polls show that Californians have the will to invest in child care and teachers’ wages. Do the governor and lawmakers?

Lea Austin
Child Care
February 22, 2022

California child care workers struggle to survive

Hunger has emerged as a key issue. within the child care workforce. Of the roughly 1 million child care workers in the country, research shows, 1 in 3 experienced food insecurity.

Karen D'Souza
Transitional Kindergarten
October 13, 2021

Universal Transitional Kindergarten | Quick Guide

Universal transitional kindergarten will essentially become California’s version of a universal preschool program, available to all 4-year-olds regardless of income.

Karen D'Souza
Commentary
October 1, 2021

Want quality child care? Pay and train workers like the pros they are

The key to increasing access to quality child care is professionalizing the field by providing child care staff a livable wage and professional development grounded in emotional competence.

Donna Housman
Commentary
June 10, 2021

Transitional kindergarten for all would hurt early education providers

A "mixed delivery" system, in which state-funded early learning programs can be in any school, would better serve the needs of families.

Christopher Maricle & Teri Davies
Early Learning
June 2, 2021

More help for struggling California child care sector

In the wake of the pandemic, child care providers have emerged as the backbone of the state’s economic recovery.

Karen D'Souza
Early Learning
May 13, 2021

Should California offer transitional kindergarten to all 4-year-olds?

Expanding TK captures the spirit of the Master Plan for Early Learning and Care and aligns with Biden’s campaign for universal preschool.

Karen D'Souza
Early Learning
April 28, 2021

Biden's plan for families could bolster California's push for early education, care

This roughly $1.8 trillion package sets aside big money for key early childhood initiatives as part of its vast cradle-to-college agenda.

Karen D'Souza
Early Learning
April 27, 2021

What President Biden's recovery plan for families means for California's children

The proposed legislation to champion childhood comes at a time when the pandemic has widened the gap between the rich and the poor.

Karen D'Souza
Commentary
April 20, 2021

Recovering from the pandemic by investing in our earliest learners

Universal high-quality preschool for three- and four-year-olds is a proven way to reduce the opportunity gap, lift families out of poverty, and stimulate the local economy.

Kelly Gonez
Early Learning
April 2, 2021

Amid pandemic, infants especially need quality child care, reformers say

Child care is far more than just babysitting, advocates say, it’s building the architecture of the brain at a pivotal stage in construction. 

Karen D'Souza
Early Learning
March 11, 2021

What the federal stimulus bill means to California's child care sector

California, with almost 3 million children under age 5, stands to receive about $3.8 billion in federal relief.

Karen D'Souza
Career Preparation
March 5, 2021

Why I must earn a college degree as a parent of a young child

Returning to community college was no easy feat as a single mother and first-generation, low-income college student.

Melanie Gerner
Early Learning
February 25, 2021

Most California parents worry about their young children’s education amid pandemic

More than a third of parents surveyed said they have skipped meals or had to cut back on food for the children as a result of the pandemic. 

Karen D'Souza
Early Learning
February 24, 2021

California educators pay a wage penalty for working with younger children, report shows

Preschool teachers and child care workers earn 38% less than their colleagues in the K-8 system, the report says.

Karen D'Souza