News and Commentary

Cutting the Cost of Child Care

10.30.3008 | NY Times | After the mortgage, child care is the biggest expense in most family budgets. And in the face of job losses, belt tightening and economic uncertainty, parents are looking for ways to reduce what they spend on the people who watch their children. | Read

Wash. field tests child care quality rating system

10.29.2008 | Seattle Times | The Washington Department of Early Learning is getting ready to start field testing a new voluntary quality rating system for child care centers. In preparation, state officials have been conducting meetings to educate the public. The last of these meetings is planned this week in White Center, south of Seattle. | Read

Pre-K in Tough Times: The 'Good Investment 'Angle Continues

09.25.2008 | Eaely Stories | Washington Post Reporter Michael Alison Chandler weighed in on the pre-k as good investment angle, attending a forum of education advocates in Fairfax County, Virginia that focused on Virginia's hope of adopting a new formula for matching grants that would help expand pre-kindergarten in the county. | Read

States Losing Ground on Child Care

09.25.2008 | Early Ed Watch | 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. But a report from the National Women's Leadership Center, paints a much uglier picture of state progress on child care. | Read

Pre-K and the States: Who's Up, Who's Down

09.24.2008 | Early Ed Watch | A new report from Pre-K Now gauges state legislative support for quality pre-k during the 2008 state legislative sessions. This report is one of two the organization does annually; the other is an annual barometer of governors’ leadership on pre-k through state funding requests. | Read

Lessons from Arkansas

09.22.2008 | Early Ed Watch | A few weeks ago I traveled to Arkansas, where I had an opportunity to learn more about the state's early education system and meet some of the people who play a critical role in implementing, overseeing, and supporting pre-k programs in Arkansas. | Read

Child care costs more than public university tuition

09.02.2008 | Seattle PI | In the latest data on the broken economics of child care, care for infants costs more than tuition at public four-year universities in 44 states, a report says. | Read

Protect Our Kids From Preschool Hype

09.02.2008 | Early Ed Watch | In a recent Wall Street Journal article the Reason Foundation's Shika Dalmia and Lisa Snell argue that pre-k programs don't work or, worse, actually harm kids. Dalmia and Snell have a point: Some pre-k advocates exaggerate the benefits of pre-k. But Dalmia and Snell commit the same sin by over-hyping the evidence against pre-k and conflating high-quality educational pre-k with ordinary daycare programs. | Read

The war against preschool

09.02.2008 | The San Francisco Chronicle | There's nothing controversial-sounding about Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's campaign pledge to make a $10 billion federal investment in high-quality early education. After all, 38 states and the District of Columbia now underwrite pre-kindergarten. With GOP stalwarts such as Alabama Gov. Bob Riley and South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds on board, and support coming from the likes of Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, as well as a host of big-city police chiefs, you'd think that the benefits of preschool are as generally accepted as the reality of global warming. Think again. | Read

Gates Foundation invests $2 M in WA early learning

08.27.2008 | Seattle Times | The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded $2 million over two years to five Washington school districts to help them work with preschools to better prepare kids for kindergarten. | Read

Early-Learning and Neighborhood Center Planned in West Bremerton

08.24.2008 | Kitsap Sun | The plan is to build an 18,265-square-foot building that offers comprehensive education and social services to children of lower-income families from birth through the third grade. | Read

California Budget Squeeze Tough On Child Care Centers

08.19.2008 | San Francisco Chronicle | Dozens of child care centers in the Bay Area and hundreds across the state are feeling pain because of the state budget deadlock, putting half a million children statewide at risk of losing care. | Read

London Calling: Are Early Ed Standards in England Tougher Than America?

08.18.2008 | Early Ed Watch | So are early education standards really higher in England? Early Ed Watch took a look at the English Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage, which has been operating in English preschool ("reception") classes since 2002. We compared those standards with those from two U.S. states--Georgia, which has the nation's oldest universal pre-k system, and Massachusetts, which is generally regarded as having some of the nation's strongest academic standards (and is now en route to universal pre-k)-as well as the District of Columbia, where Zuckerbrod's daughter had previously attended pre-k. | Read

In Maine, Shifting Attitudes Toward Pre-Kindergarten

08.05.2008 | Early Stories | Efforts to improve the lives of children gaining traction in Maine) The Times Record of Maine put a number of trends together this week in an article that looked at efforts to improve the lives of children in a state where child care providers rank 596th out of 647 detailed occupations, where 40 percent of the youngest children remain unserved by formal child care programs and where the percentage of children living in low-income families has doubled over the last 10 years. | Read

WA parents know about quality childcare

07.29.2008 | Seattle Times | Washington parents know a lot about choosing quality childcare for their kids. That's the conclusion of a survey released Tuesday by the state Department of Early Learning. | Read

Early Education and the Next Administration

07.28.2008 | New America Foundation | The pending reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act will provide the next president an opportunity to substantially reshape federal education policy. | Read

A pioneering system for early learning

06.29.2008 | The News Tribune | To paraphrase Thoreau, lots of people hack at the branches of evil; few hit the roots. That, in essence, is why the Pierce County Early Learning Consortium deserves generous and enthusiastic community support. | Read

Universal preschool students perform better

06.26.2008 | USA Today | An ambitious public pre-kindergarten program in Oklahoma boosts kids' skills dramatically, a long-awaited study finds, for the first time offering across-the-board evidence that universal preschool, open to all children, benefits both low-income and middle-class kids. | Read

Moving Towards Universal Pre-k in Washington, D.C.

06.26.2008 | Early Ed Watch | Last month, the District of Columbia Council took an important step towards making universal pre-k a reality in the District by passing Pre-Kindergarten Expansion and Enhancement Act. | Read

It's never too late to help

06.26.2008 | Seattle Times | Nina Auerbach's job is to set little kids on a course that will avoid those pitfalls, while Al Sugiyama catches teens and adults who trip and tries to get them back on course. | Read

Early learning must mix with K-12

06.22.2008 | The News Tribune | In 2006, the Legislature created the Department of Early Learning in our state. In 2007, lawmakers allocated $136 million to fund early learning and related programs. While the agency’s creation will not solve our immediate needs, the debate among education leaders now is how to integrate our early learning expectations with our K-12 education system. | Read

Dividends from early education

05.27.2008 | Wenatchee World | “Invest in early childhood education. Concentrate on children from families considered "at risk" due to poverty or other complicating factors…” | Read

Child care workers in U.S. averaged $18,820 in 2006

05.01.2008 | Seattle Post-Intelligencer | Child care workers typically earn less than locker-room attendants and service-station workers, pulling in $18,820 a year in 2006, according to a report released Thursday. In Washington, child care workers fared a little better, as their average salary was $19,710 in 2006, according to data released by the American Federation of Teachers. | Read

Gates Sr. touts early-learning programs: Philanthropist says current system is failure, disaster

04.19. 2008 | The Bellingham Herald | Philanthropist Bill Gates Sr., father of the Microsoft co-founder, called on Whatcom County business, government and education leaders Friday to direct a major reform of early-learning programs. | Read

State's Department of Early Learning paying dividends

04.11.2008 | Longview Daily News  | Washington lawmakers made early childhood education a high priority beginning in 2006, with the creation of state Department of Early Learning. More than a dozen programs dealing with early childhood development were assigned to the new department. The Legislature was betting that bringing programs under a single, cabinet-level umbrella would improve the effectiveness of the state's efforts to help Washington's youngest citizens succeed. | Read

WA Childcare Advocates Seek Advice from Finland, England

03.10.2008 | Washington News Service | Juggling preschoolers and paychecks isn't as hard for families in some countries as it is for Americans. So, a group from Washington went to Finland and England recently, to see what they could learn about those countries' cultures and priorities. They found that taxes are high there, but tax dollars are used to cover costs of early learning and college, family leave, and healthcare -- expenses that most Americans pay on their own. | Read

Improving and Rating Our Local Child-Care Choices

03.09.2008 | Kitsap Sun | Where's a good day-care? That's probably one of the most frequent — and important — questions asked by newcomer families in Kitsap County, or by families where a stay-at-home parent is returning to the workforce. But it also can be one of the most difficult to answer. Personal referrals from a friend are a possibility, but sometimes, for various reasons, they're not a good fit; or possibly, they have no openings. So where does a parent go for advice? | Read

Child-care bill a new kind of law for the private sector

03.05.2008 | Seattle Times | The child-care bill in the state Senate, House Bill 2449, is an ingenious creation. It places the workers and managers in most private child-care centers in a bargaining group with others in the area. There will be a vote on union representation, and if a majority of those voting vote yes, the whole group, bosses and workers alike, will be in the union. The union will bargain with the state over payment per child, and will negotiate a fee for itself. | Read

Washington Childcare Centers Explore Right to Organize

03.05.2008 | Washington Public News Service | It's a new twist on unionizing. Instead of workers negotiating with employers, child care centers and their workers want collective bargaining rights with the state. A bill aiming to allow that is on the Senate floor this week. Washington pays a subsidy to help poor families get child care, but care providers say it's not enough to cover their costs or retain qualified employees. | Listen

Tacoma School Board agrees to fund free full-day kindergarten

02.29.2008 | The News Tribune | If you want smarter high school graduates, you’d better start feeding students bigger doses of reading, writing, math and even coloring right from the start, Tacoma school officials believe. So starting this fall, free all-day kindergarten will be on the menu at every public school in the city. | Read

More day cares may unionize: Bill would allow workers to organize at state-backed centers

02.28.2008 | Everett Herald | Susan Torngren knows there's much more to looking after kids than feeding them and changing diapers. After 25 years as a child-care provider, she said, it still remains one of the most neglected professions. That's why she supports a bill moving through the Legislature that would enable licensed child-care centers that take state money to care for low-income children to join unions and bargain with the state for more money. | Read

Grant brings White Center initiative a step closer to quality child care

02.20.2008 | Seattle Times | After more than a year of planning, the high-profile effort for quality child care in White Center is about to get off the ground. Thrive by Five, a public-private partnership, today announced the first $12 million in grants for the White Center Early Learning Initiative, including $7 million to build a new early-learning center in White Center's Greenbridge community. | Read

Head Start: Raising Standards

02.08.2008 | Seattle Post-Intelligencer | During the past year, Congress and President Bush raised the standards for Head Start. That decision threatens to leave a Washington state program for young children even further behind the national model. With a little flexibility, though, establishing and funding a state Head Start will strengthen the academic and social foundations for thousands of lower-income children. | Read

WSU program gets nearly $1 million from Gates Foundation

12.19.2007 | Tri-City Herald | The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a $967,000 grant to expand a project teaching basic skills to Spanish-speaking child care providers. The idea is to give Spanish-speaking child care providers solid foundations in reading, writing and comprehension in their native language, then move on to teaching them English as a second language. The result is providers who are better able to teach children the skills they'll need when they start school. | Read

Early Learning Center Gives Kids, Parents a Calm Start

11.18.2007 | Everett Herald | One single mother hurries from the bus stop pushing a stroller in the rain. Other parents run in from distant parking lots around Everett Community College, lugging heavy car seats to be picked up by relatives later in the day. Many are tired, schlepping backpacks and rushing to get to class. Sometimes their kids are crying. But in the lobby of the Everett Community College Early Learning Center, there is a warm greeting from staff and morning rituals that offer parents and children a calm second start to the day. | Read

Congress Makes Wise Investment with Head Start

11.18.2007 | Longview Daily News | Congress gave final approval this past week to a five-year reauthorization bill for Head Start, the nation's flagship early childhood education program. It took four long years of sometimes heated partisan debate to produce this legislation. But, in the end, Congress got it right. | Read

Day care can mean a degree

11.16.2007 | Tacoma News Tribune | More local colleges are building or expanding facilities to meet demand for on-campus child care. For many students, it makes getting an education possible. | Read