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

Coverage of "Raising a Nation" from @latimes.com www.latimes.com/california/s...

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...

Everyone having a sportsbook in their pocket is not, it turns out, a good idea. familyfrontier.substack.com/p/unfettered...

"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-...

It's publication day for Raising a Nation! Get it on Amazon, Bookshop, or wherever you get your books! www.amazon.com/dp/0197799299/

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...

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.

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... )

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... )

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...

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.

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...

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— https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/11/childcare-family-movement

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...

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.

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...

📉 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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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-...

"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

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...

Good look at Quebec's child care system and what the U.S. can learn: www.theguardian.com/us-news/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.

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.

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

For my Substack this week, I wrote about how sometimes the best thing we can for our goals do is turn around, why that's so hard in public policy, and how we can create the enabling conditions for more course-correction. familyfrontier.substack.com/p/on-changin...

Trump has indicated he wants to eliminate Head Start, but before he can do that his administration is already delaying and denying programs’ funding. Closures will likely come soon. prospect.org/health/2025-...

I have a piece out in @newrepublic.com today about why liberals need to engage with low birth rates and family formation beyond simply scoffing at right-wing hypocrisy or assuming more social spending will solve the problem. I hope you'll give it a read. newrepublic.com/article/1944...

This is a MUST READ. Seriously. Read it. "But private equity companies have a playbook: buy a business, run it into the ground, extract maximum profits, and flee the scene. They are responsible for the bankruptcies of many popular restaurant and retail chains: 1/3 jacobin.com/2025/04/priv...

4 in 10 families go into debt paying for child care.
  So, what's the GOP answer to helping lower costs for parents?   Eliminating Head Start.   A total betrayal. www.fastcompany.com/91320429/how...

Head Start grantees have been telling me that their funding requests have been kicked back for not including enough "justification" of why they are drawing down their funds. Today, ACF sent an email to grantees that their funding will be now approved or denied based on those justifications

We Already Know How This Medicaid Story Is Going To End @ehaspel.bsky.social familyfrontier.substack.com/p/we-already...

“Carney said we “absolutely have to keep in place the progress that the government has made on crucial things such as child care….” The Liberal platform affirms this … and notes: “In just a few short years, this program has become a core part of Canada’s social infrastructure.””

In @fastcompany.com I explain the many, many ripple effects of slashing Head Start: https://www.fastcompany.com/91320429/how-will-ending-head-start-impact-you

Remember that when you hear about the Republicans planning Medicaid cuts, what that means in reality is "making it harder for kids to see doctors."

Important from @crampell.bsky.social : www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

I traveled to Idaho report on the first state in the country proposing to end state-mandated child-staff ratios in daycare. It marked a major development in a broader conservative push to deregulate daycare as a means to expand child care options and bring down costs /1 www.vox.com/policy/40879...

it's hard to get people to read stories not directly on the news these days, but I think if you want to understand why the Trump administration is proposing to cut funding for Head Start and the nearly 800,000 low-income children it serves, this will help www.vox.com/policy/40879...

In my Substack today, I call on everyone who cares about strong and healthy families to fight back against efforts to do mass deportations of parents with no criminal record, the overwhelming majority of whom have U.S. citizen children. familyfrontier.substack.com/p/which-fami...

A video summary on my latest Substack post, "Private Equity & Friends Fight Back Against Child Care Guardrails": youtu.be/jeZLyBrAbG4?...