Early Education Clips for Week of January 19-23
Here’s a sampling of early childhood education in the news this week:
TOP STORY
President Prioritizes Investment in Early Childhood Education in State of The Union, New Tax Credit Proposal For the third year in a row, early childhood education was an important piece of President Obama’s State of the Union address. The President announced a major tax code reform proposal that would provide significant relief for working families who need high-quality, affordable child care. The plan would triple the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) from $1,000 to $3,000 per child and make the credit more widely available to middle-income families. This tax credit would benefit 5.1 million families and 6.7 million children – the majority of whom are under five years old.
Read More:
Fact Sheet: Helping All Working Families With Young Children Afford Child Care — Whitehouse.gov
President’s Speech Proposes Tax Cuts Helping Youngest Americans – Orlando Sentinel
Why Does Obama Want to Help Families Pay for Child Care? Because it’s Insanely Expensive – Slate
Obama Proposes Expansion of Program Providing Subsidies for Child Care – New York Times
Obama Says Child Care Costs Economic Priority, Not Side Issue – Bloomberg
Obama Highlights Child Care in GOP Strongholds of Kansas – Associated Press
Can We Solve Our Child Care Problem? – New York Magazine
OTHER NATIONAL NEWS
House Education Committee Outlines Head Start Revision Principles The House Committee on Education released a white paper on Wednesday making recommendations for revising the Head Start Act, last reauthorized in 2007. The Committee’s principles include: reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens, encouraging local innovation, improving coordination between Head Start and state/local programs, quality improvements and enhanced parental engagement. The Committee is soliciting comments on these proposals through June 1, 2015. Read More at Education Week.
Child Care More Expensive than College in 30 States, District of Columbia A new report from Child Care Aware of America finds that the average cost of center-based child care was $11,666 per year in 2014. Child care was more expensive than public college tuition in more than half of the states and in Washington DC. Read More at Forbes.
Better Training for Child Care Workers to Improve Child Development In California, a group of foundations, nonprofits, local governments and school districts are launching a new initiative to provide intensive professional development for early childhood education workers. Educare of California at Silicon Valley will be home to high-quality child care programs as well as a training institute dedicated to teaching child care providers best practices and child development. The goal is to expand the findings of the institute to help other states and cities improve the education and training of early childhood education providers. Read More at National Journal.
FROM THE STATES
ALABAMA: Governor Wants State’s Pre-K Program Open to All Four Year Olds In his second inaugural address, Republican Governor Robert Bentley said he wants to increase funding for Alabama’s pre-K program so that every parent who wants to enroll their four-year-old can do so. Read More.
NEW MEXICO: State Legislative Finance Committee Considering Improvements to Early Childhood Programs The New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee recommended increasing funding for early childhood education programs by $24 million in the coming year. The committee report called on the state to develop a plan to expand home visiting programs and for increased funding and expansion of publicly-funded preschool programs. Read More.
SOUTH CAROLINA: 30 Percent of Low-Income Four Year Olds Attend State-Funded Preschool Following two recent expansions, about 12,500 4-year-olds from low-income families are participating in South Carolina’s full-day preschool. That’s an increase from 5,300 children in 2013. Read More.
ILLINOIS: New First Lady to Focus on Improving Early Childhood Education Diana Rauner, wife of newly-elected Republican Governor Bruce Rauner, is expected to advocate for high-quality early childhood education in her role as First Lady. Ms. Rauner serves as the President of Ounce of Prevention. Read More.
MASSACHUSETTS: Universal Pre-Kindergarten Legislation Introduced A bill was introduced this week in Massachusetts that would allow school districts to develop universal pre-kindergarten programs and submit them for funding under the state’s education grant formula. Read More.
MINNESOTA: Governor Dayton Proposes Expanded State Child Tax Credit Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Mark Dayton announced a new plan to expand the state’s child and dependent care tax credit to 92,000 more families. Read More.