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Elliot Haspel

@ehaspel.bsky.social
1.2K followers 69 following 76 posts

Child and family policy are my jam.

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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
New America @newamerica.org · 26/06/2026
Many Americans say they don't know how care works, what it costs, or who pays for it. Better Life Lab's @brigidschulte.bsky.social and @ehaspel.bsky.social offer important insights into this care disconnect and why it matters for policy. 🔗 go.newamerica.org/the-care-disconne…
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Lena Bilik @lbilik.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Appreciate this take from @ehaspel.bsky.social re: intro'd Child Care Modernization Act. We can't get sidetracked by childcare proposals that tinker around the edges of a broken system. It's time policymakers prioritize what we rly need: bold proposals for universal childcare that meet the moment.
familyfrontier.substack.com
Now Is Not the Time for the Child Care Modernization Act
Advancing legislation six months before the midterms is an unnecessary risk -- let's see what the 120th Congress brings
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Karen Benjamin Guzzo @karenguzzo.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Glad to see more folks advocating that low birth rates are likely here to stay, so we need to plan for population aging. It's not, in fact, the end of the world.
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Erica Meltzer @ericameltzer.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
"When schools close without a plan, they can become drains on municipal resources and hubs for crime. ... Yet the United States need not simply march into a future with scores of empty, crime-ridden school buildings."
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Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
I have a new piece out in @vox.com today: www.vox.com/health/48763...
vox.com
Birth rates keep falling. We need to confront reality.
Here’s how America can age gracefully.
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
I have a piece in @jacobinmag.bsky.social doing a deeper dive into the question of child care ratios & why it's so dangerous that Alex Adams, Trump's appointee to head the Administration for Children and Families, is signaling he wants to put them on the chopping block. jacobin.com/2026/05/trum...
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Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
I have a piece in @jacobinmag.bsky.social doing a deeper dive into the question of child care ratios & why it's so dangerous that Alex Adams, Trump's appointee to head the Administration for Children and Families, is signaling he wants to put them on the chopping block. jacobin.com/2026/05/trum...
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 01/05/2026
Donald Trump’s broad economic and foreign-policy agenda is accelerating a “budgetary death spiral” for many child-care programs, leaving parents in desperate straits, @ehaspel.bsky.social writes:
bit.ly
Child Care Is Buckling
The president’s broad policies are making a bad situation worse.
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 30/04/2026
Donald Trump’s broad economic and foreign-policy agenda is accelerating a “budgetary death spiral” for many child-care programs, leaving parents in desperate straits, @ehaspel.bsky.social writes:
bit.ly
Child Care Is Buckling
The president’s broad policies are making a bad situation worse.
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Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
My latest: www.theatlantic.com/family/2026/...
theatlantic.com
Child Care Is Buckling
The president’s broad policies are making a bad situation worse.
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Lea Woods @lea9223.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
At what point do we admit that Tri-Share is not successful? As @ehaspel.bsky.social writes, "I don’t mind the concept that Tri-Share is a policy laboratory — but if that’s the case, there’s a cost to continuing with an ineffective experiment.” familyfrontier.substack.com/p/challengin...
familyfrontier.substack.com
Challenging Tri-Share
There's a difference between "this isn't the whole solution" and "this may not work well enough to continue doing it."
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Nice lil debunker of the "half of Americans read at a sixth grade level" stat x.com/ehaspel/stat...
x.com
Elliot Haspel on X: "So look: are there large numbers of Americans whose literacy isn't fabulous and who would have trouble comprehending the NYT cover-to-cover? Sure. Are there a minority who really struggle with adult illiteracy and need support? Absolutely. But half of Americans aren't reading" / X
So look: are there large numbers of Americans whose literacy isn't fabulous and who would have trouble comprehending the NYT cover-to-cover? Sure. Are there a minority who really struggle with adult illiteracy and need support? Absolutely. But half of Americans aren't reading
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Josh Cowen @joshcowenmi.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Every word of this from @ehaspel.bsky.social
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Emily Peck @emilypeck.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
The letters appear to have been written quickly. Requests for documents repeatedly refer to "Minnesota" in letters addressed to other states. www.axios.com/2026/01/07/t...
axios.com
5 Democratic-run states are told that their child care funds have been frozen
The suspension of the funds could hurt low-income families in those states, depending on how long it lasts, advocates say.
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Bonnie O'Keefe @bonnierok.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
I appreciate this breakdown of "what fresh hell is this?" from @ehaspel.bsky.social familyfrontier.substack.com/p/the-new-ye...
familyfrontier.substack.com
The New Year's Child Care Freeze: A Primer
Unpacking a story that is spinning wildly out of control
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Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
👀 hechingerreport.org/immigration-...
hechingerreport.org
Immigration enforcement is driving away early childhood educators
In addition to workers facing detainment or deportation, many people are staying home to avoid situations where they may encounter ICE.
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Lena Bilik @lbilik.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Exciting news from New Mexico, proving that states continue to innovate in the face of the federal government's decades of inaction on childcare. Don't let anyone tell you there isn't nationwide demand for childcare as a public good. shorturl.at/tTENi
shorturl.at
New Mexico is first state in nation to offer universal child care - Office of the Governor - Michelle Lujan Grisham
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Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Coverage of "Raising a Nation" from @latimes.com www.latimes.com/california/s...
latimes.com
Public school is a right. Should child care be considered one too?
Researcher Elliot Haspel thinks advocates are framing the argument for child care all wrong. Why he believes child care is central to family creation — and national security.
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Lea Woods @lea9223.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
State and local policymakers looking to increase child care affordability, supply, and compensation must continue expanding public funding. Tri-Share does not build supply or substantively improve wages and benefits, making it a poor solution to the child care crisis. tcf.org/content/comm...
tcf.org
The Tri-Share Model Is Not a Solution to the Child Care Crisis
Former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called child care a “textbook example of a broken market.” The problems plaguing this broken market were aptly
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Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Everyone having a sportsbook in their pocket is not, it turns out, a good idea. familyfrontier.substack.com/p/unfettered...
familyfrontier.substack.com
Unfettered Sports Betting is Bad
Some genies can -- and should -- be put back in the bottle
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Suzanne Kahn @suzmkahn.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
"Childcare undergirds everything we care about as Americans." - Great conversation between @lbilik.bsky.social and @ehaspel.bsky.social in today's Fireside Stacks. www.firesidestacks.com/p/raising-a-...
firesidestacks.com
Raising a Nation: Elliot Haspel on What a Universal Childcare Movement Will Take
It is no secret that childcare in the US is, as Elliot Haspel puts it, “a hellscape.” Elliot’s new book, Raising a Nation: 10 Reasons Every American Has a Stake in Child Care for All, is a welcome add...
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Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
It's publication day for Raising a Nation! Get it on Amazon, Bookshop, or wherever you get your books! www.amazon.com/dp/0197799299/
amazon.com
Raising a Nation: 10 Reasons Every American Has a Stake in Child Care For All
offers a new framework for thinking about a comprehensive, inclusive child care system: one that supports families in all their diversity, whether they want to utilize a licensed child care program, f...
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Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
I have a piece out in @jacobinmag.bsky.social today, adapted from my new book Raising a Nation, on why good child care is about far more than just the economy-- it's about the very health of our communities and society. jacobin.com/2025/08/chil...
jacobin.com
Childcare Is Not Just an Economic Fix. It’s a Social Good.
Even strong defenders of childcare sometimes rely on the economic case that childcare programs keep workers in the labor force. While it’s not wrong, that argument misses the true role of childcare: s...
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Stephen Nuñez @socio-steve.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
Also look at this screen. Look at our roster of experts! If you want to understand what is going on with the economy and with policy you need to attend @rooseveltinstitute.org events and read @rooseveltinstitute.org papers.
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
Today, the think tank Capita launched our "Unifying Family Policy" series w/the first three interlinked policy briefs in a cumulative effort to forge a family policy agenda responsive to the forces that will shape family life in years to come. (Series intro & links here: capita.org/a-unified-fa... )
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Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
Today, the think tank Capita launched our "Unifying Family Policy" series w/the first three interlinked policy briefs in a cumulative effort to forge a family policy agenda responsive to the forces that will shape family life in years to come. (Series intro & links here: capita.org/a-unified-fa... )
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Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Excited to share the first media coverage of my new book, "Raising a Nation," from @jackiemader.bsky.social! The book drops August 11th and can be pre-ordered here: www.amazon.com/dp/0197799299/. hechingerreport.org/why-american...
hechingerreport.org
New book argues child care is a ‘societal imperative’
In ‘Raising a Nation,’ researcher Elliot Haspel says everyone should want strong supports for early childhood, even those without children.
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Suzanne Kahn @suzmkahn.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Parents and providers know what they need in a childcare system: something simple & safe where all kids have a high quality spot. We worked with Community Change on a new paper w/ research rooted in conversations with stakeholders about these simple demands.
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Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
www.kgw.com/article/news/local/oreg…
kgw.com
'We cannot look away': Oregon congresswoman says mom, 4 children have been held in federal custody for nearly 2 weeks
Rep. Maxine Dexter said the four children are U.S. citizens and that the family has been detained since June 28 at a Washington CBP facility.
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinstitute.org · 11/07/2025
Childcare in America is broken—expensive, scarce, & treated like a private problem rather than a public priority. @ehaspel.bsky.social & Rebecca Gale on how the US has failed to treat childcare as the essential infrastructure it is #fixingchildcare 👇 www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
theguardian.com
Childcare is a hellscape for most US families. Why isn’t there a bigger push for change?
Long seen as women’s work, childcare is underpaid and considered a private matter for families – not government
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Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
I co wrote a piece, via @newamerica.org’s Better Life Lab, for @theguardian.com about America’s surprising lack of a mass social movement demanding major child care reform— www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/ju…
theguardian.com
Childcare is a hellscape for most US families. Why isn’t there a bigger push for change?
Long seen as women’s work, childcare is underpaid and considered a private matter for families – not government
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinstitute.org · 03/07/2025
A private equity-backed company sent letters to childcare programs in the Midwest asking, “Have you ever considered how you might transition your business to a new owner?” A fitting title for @ehaspel.bsky.social's brief on private equity ownership in childcare. rooseveltinstitute.org/public...
Quote with 
The rising market share of investor-backed childcare chains is not an isolated phenomenon; it is part and parcel of the broader financialization of human services, with investor activity ranging from nursing homes to autism service providers to emergency rooms to prisons. This financialization is most notably marked by the influence of private equity firms, which also exert political power to protect their interests—interests that are not always aligned with what is best for children, parents, staff, communities, and the country writ large. Most of these sectors are heavily dependent on government funding, meaning that this misalignment can result in private investment entities leeching off public money while also harming the end users.
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Bryce Covert @brycecovert.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
And those that choose not to massively cut SNAP and Medicaid will have to find the money elsewhere in their budgets. I've been reporting on state childcare programs recently and everyone expects unrelated things like that to get deeply slashed if these benefit cuts go through.
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinstitute.org · 01/07/2025
More childcare providers are retiring—& without a plan, families face fewer and riskier options. @ehaspel.bsky.social breaks down his new brief which explores how public policy can support ownership transitions that serve the public good #fixingchildcare familyfrontier.substack.com/p/who-a-chil...
familyfrontier.substack.com
Who a Child Care Program Sells to Matters
I have a new policy brief out with some ideas on public sector solutions to child care supply
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinstitute.org · 27/06/2025
📉 Childcare is a broken market—and it’s failing families, providers, and communities alike. @ehaspel.bsky.social explores how public intervention isn’t optional, but essential. #fixingchildcare rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...
Quote from the Roosevelt Institute discussing the need for publicly supported ownership transition models in the childcare sector, emphasizing societal benefits and diverse, high-quality options.
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Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
One reason private equity-backed child care chains continue to expand is that there is no one else for independent program owners to sell to. In a new brief for @rooseveltinstitute.org, I look at public sector solutions that can put kids & fam's over profit. rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...
rooseveltinstitute.org
“Have You Ever Considered How You Might Transition Your Business to a New Owner?” - Roosevelt Institute
In a new analysis Elliot Haspel explores how growing private equity ownership in childcare is driving inequality, limiting community access, and threatening sector stability—and how government-led sol...
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Lena Bilik @lbilik.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Most of us probably know intuitively that private equity & investor-backed chains should have no place in the care & education of young children. Grateful for this excellent brief from @ehaspel.bsky.social that gets into the weeds of WHY & HOW we should guard against corporate capture of childcare.
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinstitute.org · 26/06/2025
NEW: Investor-backed chains are quietly taking over childcare—deepening inequality & shrinking access. In a new brief, @ehaspel.bsky.social outlines how public tools can shift power back to families & communities. #fixingchildcare rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...
Local, state, and the federal government must develop alternate ownership transfer mechanisms in childcare as a bulwark against profit-maximizing financialization and as an affirmative good for building a family-friendly and family-centered care system and policy framework.
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Lydia Kiesling @lydiakiesling.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
It's refreshing that these people aren't using a pretext of concern over the program's rollout to scuttle it. The move is transparently about the wishes of the very wealthy over the will of the voters. You can dislike Preschool for All & still see that this is bad: actionnetwork.org/letters/no-o...
actionnetwork.org
NO ON SB106
Late at night on June 24, the Senate Finance Committee requested a last-minute amendment to S.B. 106, specifically written to kill Preschool for All. You can read reporting about this wildly undemocra...
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Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
In Oregon, the Democratic governor and Dem state senators are trying a cloak-and-dagger maneuver in the final days of session to pre-empt a locality (Portland area) from collecting a tax that its voters overwhelmingly passed to support universal pre-K. familyfrontier.substack.com/p/oregon-is-...
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Sarah Yergeau @sarahyergeau.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
"How can anyone or any organization that claims to have the backs of children and families do anything but be in full-throated opposition to this bill?...it’s a matter of this is a terrible piece of legislation that will do enormous harm" the latest from @ehaspel.bsky.social
substack.com
It's OK to Call a Bad Bill a Bad Bill
You do not in fact 'gotta hand it' to the GOP for putting in a few not-awful tax bill provisions
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Empire State Campaign for Child Care @empirestateccc.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
That's what we're after- child care for every New Yorker. It can be done. “They turned childcare from being a welfare service for low-income families to a core part of the social infrastructure,” like schools, roads and fire departments." @ehaspel.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
theguardian.com
Quebec provides universal childcare for less than $7 a day. Here’s what the US can learn
Public childcare network is a win for everyone – kids, parents and the government, and the Quebec model is a shining example
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Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Good look at Quebec's child care system and what the U.S. can learn: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
theguardian.com
Quebec provides universal childcare for less than $7 a day. Here’s what the US can learn
Public childcare network is a win for everyone – kids, parents and the government, and the Quebec model is a shining example
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
My new book RAISING A NATION: 10 REASONS EVERY AMERICAN HAS A STAKE IN CHILD CARE FOR ALL is available for pre-order! www.amazon.com/dp/0197799299/ Also, if you email your preorder receipt to raisinganationbook at gmail dot com, you'll get a free 6-month subscription to my Family Frontier substack.
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Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
My new book RAISING A NATION: 10 REASONS EVERY AMERICAN HAS A STAKE IN CHILD CARE FOR ALL is available for pre-order! www.amazon.com/dp/0197799299/ Also, if you email your preorder receipt to raisinganationbook at gmail dot com, you'll get a free 6-month subscription to my Family Frontier substack.
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Stephen Nuñez @socio-steve.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Read this piece by @ehaspel.bsky.social and then read @kedseconomist.com 's great report. Keep these in mind while you struggle to stitch together camps and daycare for your kids this summer. It doesn't have to be this way.
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Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
I thought this was a fascinating conversation between Ross Douthat and Alice Evans about the global decline in family formation & dating relationships, what we do or don't yet know from research, & why some of the drivers may not be what conventional wisdom suggests. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | How the iPhone Drove Men and Women Apart
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Reposted by Elliot Haspel
Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
In my Substack today I take a cold, hard look at the Democrats' odds of having a federal trifecta anytime soon - especially staring down a post-2030 reapportionment that will shift serious power to the GOP - & what that means for a family policy strategy. familyfrontier.substack.com/p/waiting-fo...
familyfrontier.substack.com
Waiting for a Trifecta
Time for an electoral reality check
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Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
In my Substack today I take a cold, hard look at the Democrats' odds of having a federal trifecta anytime soon - especially staring down a post-2030 reapportionment that will shift serious power to the GOP - & what that means for a family policy strategy. familyfrontier.substack.com/p/waiting-fo...
familyfrontier.substack.com
Waiting for a Trifecta
Time for an electoral reality check
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Elliot Haspel @ehaspel.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Pay attention to Wisconsin: child care providers there have begun a prolonged protest and for some a work stoppage, to push the state legislature to restore critical funding cuts. (WI is one of six states that puts zero permanent state money into child care.) earlylearningnation.com/2025/05/wisc...
earlylearningnation.com
Wisconsin is Cutting State Funding for Child Care. Providers are Taking a Stand - Early Learning Nation
On Monday, child care providers across the country participated in the fourth annual Day Without Child Care, closing their doors and gathering to demand a
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