Jackie Mader

For the past year, I've been tracking a quiet wave of child care deregulation efforts. The consequences of these policies for underpaid, overworked early educators, as well as America's children (during a pivotal time of brain development), are stark:
hechingerreport.org/the-dark-futur…

How should we use #AI in early childhood? Experts and educators are divided: hechingerreport.org/3-global-early…

Stringent eligibility rules for state child care assistance programs can have the unintended consequence of stymieing upward mobility.

My latest: Parents are quitting jobs, passing on raises — to qualify for child care:
hechingerreport.org/parents-are-qu…

Such an important story by @karinbrulliard. It covers so many important issues: lack of child care funding, the way care is looked down on by many lawmakers, parents turning down raises to get assistance, challenges running a child care business, etc washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/12…

What is the state of child care like in places trying to deregulate? Hundreds of pages of inspection reports highlighted disturbing conditions for kids, signaling a need for more support for teachers, not larger groups and teen workers. My latest:
hechingerreport.org/investigating-…