Center for American Progress (CAP) has launched a new, interactive online tool that estimates the cost of quality child care (by state!). Check it out here.
Quotable & Notable
“Unlike a short-staffed restaurant that may need to curtail operating hours or menu options, child-care programs are cultivating the academic and socioemotional foundations of a generation; forcing them into a lurch is frankly dangerous. Children thrive on consistent, reliable relationships, and effectively providing care and education for a group of 3-year-olds requires skill. Child care is about the last sector in which you want to see high churn and programs scraping for warm bodies. Yet here we are. There is only one solution: public investment. Child-care programs don’t obey the classic rules of supply and demand; many experts consider the sector a failedmarket. Parents are already tapped out, but the obscene prices they pay don’t come close to covering the true cost of care in such a personnel-heavy enterprise. Only programs serving the most affluent can reasonably charge more to boost wages.”
Close to 400 child care centers in Cleveland are connected to lead pipes. Last week, Governor DeWine announced that Ohio’s new H2Ohio initiative will replace aging lead pipes throughout child cares in Cleveland. In partnership with the Ohio EPA and other government agencies, the state awarded the city a $500,000 grant to address this issue.
Policy Radar
Ohio’s two-year budget was signed by Gov. DeWine on Wednesday, and we’ll share a deeper look at items impacting Ohio children and families next week in our newsletter.
For now, it’s worth noting that the Senate’s attempted changes to Step Up to Quality were removed in the final bill version. Publicly funded child care providers are and will still be required to apply and receive entry into the state’s star-rating system. However, the 2025 mandate that all publicly funded providers be rated a minimum of three stars was removed from law. The eligibility threshold for publicly funded child care was also raised from 130% of the federal poverty level to 142%. School funding also received a much-awaited overhaul.
Beyond the Buckeye State
Last year, Tennessee used CARES Act funding to create the “Grow Your Own” grant program to increase access to teacher training pathways and in turn, strengthen the teacher workforce. With additional federal funding this year, the Tennessee Department of Education is investing $6.5 million towards expanding or developing Grow Your Own programs which they estimate will provide free tuition to more than 650 teachers.
This opinion piece from EdSurge suggests that early childhood leaders look to Chicago for insights on expanding pre-K systems. The city implemented several policy changes in 2013 to create more equitable enrollment in pre-K, which included, “increasing the number of full-day pre-K classrooms, reallocating classrooms to create a stronger presence in ‘high-priority’ neighborhoods, and grassroots awareness campaigns to families whose children were not already enrolled in pre-K.”
What We're Reading
WVXU discusses the “labor shortage” in Ohio from the perspectives of three Ohioans. Loss of child care remains a barrier for many working parents.
An opinion piece from Early Learning Nation describes how unsustainably low wages lead to a high rate of early childhood teacher turnover. The author notes that McDonald’s recently announced raising their entry level pay to $11-$17 an hour, while the median wage for early childhood professionals in 2020 was $12.24 an hour.
The Hill published an opinion piece which points out that “child care workers themselves are simultaneously among the most valuable and undervalued workers in our society.” The author also explains the historical roots of today’s child care crisis and how it can be connected back to slavery.
Research Round Up
Research suggests that the types of information shown to prospective parents about schooling may influence choices for their children. The Hechinger Report describes findings from an online experiment in which parents were shown various groupings of data about school performance. The data included student achievement data and growth data, the latter of which tends to correlate less to socioeconomic status. Those who were shown only achievement data tended to select (hypothetical) school districts with higher average incomes. Those shown only growth data had the inverse experience: They selected districts with lower average household incomes. When shown both, the information seemed to cancel itself out, with respondents choosing “the same district that they would have picked if they hadn’t had any academic information and all they knew was the racial composition of the students and family incomes.” These findings are not altogether surprising, but underscore how very important public report card data can be. The study also recognizes that the mere act of moving to a school district is one way in which parents exercise choice.
This edition written by: Jamie Davies O'Leary, Associate Director of Policy and Caitlin Lennon, Communications & Policy Specialist
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