The Asset Building Program is hosting an event Monday to feature Jonathan Cohn’s recent article for The New Republic "The Hell of American Day Care." A great panel will help us piece together the complicated picture of day care systems (or lack thereof) in America and offer ideas that address the issue from multiple angles. RSVP to come Monday at 12:15pm or tune in online to watch live. Bring your lunch with you; we'll have cookies, water, and soda waiting for you.
Cohn's article details the tragic outcomes of our inadequate, unequal, and essentially unregulated day care system. Stressed by the demands of the workplace and facing a dearth of quality day care options, families struggle with difficult decisions. Many child care workers are poorly compensated and inadequately trained, and few workplaces are set up to support parents as they seek out better options. With limited public funding allocated for creating, evaluating, regulating and maintaining high-quality day care facilities, millions of young children miss out on valuable early educational opportunities, and their parents struggle to stay in the workplace.
We'll ask our panel to reflect on strategies that can improve both our early education system and workplace support for families more broadly. What changes to the system would help children, especially children with low-income parents, to achieve better academic and social outcomes? Can we design programs and policies that work both to build economic stability for families and a better future for children? We'll explore "two-generation" strategies that simultaneously address the needs of both parents and their children, to provide early educational opportunities and support for parents participating in the workforce.
If you're on Twitter, join the conversation by tweeting @AssetsNAF with the hashtag #fixingdaycare.
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