Another example of the potential for bi-partisan support of early childhood programs (in line with A Purple Agenda for (Early) Education).
From Education Week’s Early Years blog:
“Proving that leaving Congress sometimes makes it easier to find bipartisan accord, former Democratic Rep. George Miller, of California, and former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, of Pennsylvania, have come together to back a dozen child-related policies they say can be supported on both sides of the aisle.
Among the policy recommendations:
- Increase the value of, and access to, the federal Child Care Tax Credit.
- Reauthorize the federally-funded home-visiting program. (Funding for that program expired at the end of September.)
- Create a competitive-grant program to encourage states to design state-level tax programs that increase access to high-quality early-childhood programs.
- Encourage states to establish minimum levels of training and competencies for their child-care workforce and to improve professional development systems for the child-care workforce in ways that have been shown to impact child outcomes.
The full report offers more recommendations and rationales on why these particular recommendations should be adopted quickly.”
First 10 