#prek

Cecilia Nowell at The Guardian:

One crisp morning in 2018, Sandra Ibarra pulled on a pair of gloves to ward off the winter chill and picked up the first cardboard sign she had designed for a protest. As a recent immigrant to the United States, Ibarra was wary of attending a demonstration. But since arriving in the United States from Mexico she had had to change careers – it was difficult to recertify her licensing as an accountant in a new country and easier to begin working in childcare – and was shocked by the poor pay. Although she taught, cooked, cleaned and did the books for a small childcare center, she was earning minimum wage. A classmate at the local community college had suggested Ibarra attend the rally, and stick around afterward for a meal with Olé, a grassroots non-profit committed to organizing working-class families.

She started attending weekly events with Olé, joining a growing network of mostly immigrant women who, like her, were working in childcare. “When you have one person or two people, no one listens to you. But when we have a lot that are united and working toward the same cause, that’s when they say, ‘Oh OK, what do you want?’” Ibarra said, speaking in Spanish. “We went out to the streets to march, to demand wage increases. We made banners. We went out to demand better benefits, because obviously many people like me earned very little,” she said, describing dozens of marches that she attended over the seven years she has fought for early-childhood educators. Olé similarly organized hundreds of other childcare workers across New Mexico, who have long campaigned to improve wages for early-childhood educators and access to childcare for working families. That work reached a dramatic conclusion when New Mexico’s governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, announced earlier this year that the state would become the first in the United States to offer free childcare to all its families, regardless of income, starting 1 November. Childcare facilities that commit to paying entry-level staff a minimum of $18 an hour will receive an incentive rate from the state. The state’s efforts to improve childhood wellbeing have gained national attention since it began offering free childcare to a majority of families in 2022. But the fight to implement universal childcare began more than a decade ago – and brought together a wide coalition of childcare workers, families, lawmakers, researchers and even the Catholic church. As New Mexico rolls out its universal free childcare program, that same coalition is eyeing strategies to ensure childcare workers are paid a living wage, build out a childcare workforce and further bolster the state’s social safety net.

New Mexico’s success in developing a free, universal childcare program is a crucial win for progressives at a time of sweeping federal cuts to early childhood education. Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending bill did not increase funding for the childcare and development block grant and Head Start to keep up with inflation, and eliminated preschool development grants and the Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools Program, renewing efforts to slash funding for early childhood education. It also cut $1tn in funding from Medicaid, which many low-income Americans – including nearly 30% of childcare workers – rely on for health insurance. Those particular funding losses come as Trump has announced new steps to dismantle the education department following broad layoffs.

[...] The roots of New Mexico’s free childcare program date back to 2008 – when advocates dreamed up a plan to pay for it. Although the state had made notable investments in child wellbeing as early as 2005, when the then lieutenant governor, Diane Denish, championed efforts to offer free pre-kindergarten to all the state’s four-year-olds, New Mexico still ranked among the worst states for child wellbeing nationwide. In 2008, the Annie E Casey Foundation ranked New Mexico dead last for child wellbeing in the United States.

[...]

At the same time, the dynamics of the state legislature began changing. In 2018, a majority of Democrats elected to the state’s house were women; two years later, women won the majority of seats in the chamber. And a growing number of those women were former teachers – like Natalie Figueroa, Debra Sariñana and Joy Garratt – single or working mothers – such as Georgene Louis, Liz Thomson and Micaela Cadena – or activists – like Angelica Rubio, Kristina Ortez and Linda Serrato. “When you get Kristina Ortez, who has two school-age children, and you have Linda Serrato, who at the time was literally pregnant and had a two-year-old, that changes the dynamics,” said Javier Martínez, today the speaker of New Mexico’s house of representatives, who began organizing around immigrant rights and childcare as an activist at the Partnership for Community Action in the early 2000s. He himself ran for office in 2014 out of a desire to see New Mexico implement free childcare, and recalls more working-class candidates and moms running for office after Trump was elected to his first term in 2016.

[...]

A few weeks later, in January 2021, New Mexico Democrats once again introduced a bill to amend the state constitution to fund early childhood education. That spring, the state house passed the amendment 44-23 and the Senate 26-16.

Sánchez knew it had attracted statewide attention when the local newspaper, the Albuquerque Journal, asked gubernatorial candidates to weigh in on whether they supported the constitutional amendment in the 2022 election. “They made it a litmus test,” he said. “And that was good for us, because it elevated it.” The constitutional amendment went to the voters in the November election – and passed in a landslide, with 70.3% voting in favor. “New Mexico in many ways has been treated like a colony for a long time,” said Martínez. “One of the arguments we made on the constitutional amendment for many years is that this is the people’s money.”

“But there was still the problem of Congress,” said Sánchez. He credits state senator Martin Heinrich for carrying it over the finish line and Regis Pecos, the executive director of the All Pueblo Council of Governors – a tribal leadership organization for the 20 pueblos of New Mexico and Texas – who encouraged Native American voters to write to their senators in support of the amendment.

The then US Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, then added the constitutional amendment to the 2022 omnibus package. “And then he told the Republicans this is not up for debate because these people shouldn’t even have to be here” appealing a century-old law, said Sánchez. That package passed, and on 23 December 2022 Joe Biden signed the constitutional amendment into law. To start, New Mexico made childcare free for families earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level, or about $124,000 for a family of four. That meant about half of New Mexico’s children now qualified.

Then, on 8 September this year, Governor Lujan Grisham announced in an executive order that New Mexico would begin offering free childcare to all families, regardless of income, on 1 November. Many New Mexicans were jubilant: sharing with local media that the announcement had convinced some to remain in the state and given them hope of saving for future expenses. But Republicans emphasized that the executive order must be codified in law to remain in effect after Lujan Grisham’s term ends next year. In the meantime, advocates, like Ibarra, are still organizing to recommend a fair pay scale for early-childhood educators.

To be completely honest I mainly make these for me

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Kid: I love the letter “f!”

Teacher: Me too! My favorite word starts with “f!”

*Adult Laughter*

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Me: Did you paint on your friends drawing?

Kid: *Jumping in place giggling*

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Song Ends

Kid 1: Yay!

Me: Did you say “yay?”

Kid 2: Yay!!!

Kid 3: *Throws arms up* YAY!!!!!

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Kid: ABCs are all done!

Teacher: No, ABCs just started.

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Kid: Pineapple!

Para: Yeah, pine- wait, no.

Me: That is a feather.

Kid: Pineapple!

Me: Feather.

Kid: PINEAPPLE!

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Kid: *Holds up toy* Walrus!

Me: That’s Goofy. From Micky Mouse.

Kid: *Shoves Goofy in my face* WALRUS!

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Teacher: Time to go to the bathroom.

Kid: No! Go to your room!

Teacher: *Laughing* This is my room.

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Three Year-Old: *Walks up to O.T.* You are just. So. Cute!

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Kid: what’s dis one? *points at core board*

Me: That one says “no.”

Kid: Dis one?

Me: That one says “different.”

Kid: Dis one?

Me: You’re pointing at “no” again.

This continues for a little bit. They would point at a word, point at no, and point at a different one.

Me: Is “no” your favorite? You keep going back to it.

Kid: *Points at yes, immediately goes back to no*

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Kid: *Playing in sensory table* Sand!

Me: That’s water.

Kid: *Happily* Sand!

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Me: Playground is all done! Time to go inside.

Kid: *Drops, laying on the ground* No, no, no, no-

Me: *Checks pockets* Here, have a feather.

Kid: *Takes feather and begins walking with me* Tickle, tickle!

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Kid: *Dumps entire basket of play food* *Growling voice* Who did that?

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Kid: *Counting* Seven crybabies….

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Kid: *pokes bruise on my leg* Why you run into stuff?

Me: It was an accident. I’m okay!

Kid: You gotta go to the hospital!

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Kid: It’s Ms. Nugget!

Para #1: No, it’s [Speech Therapist].

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Teacher: Oh, there’s a pumpkin in my butt!

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Kid: *Playing Tag* Get the girl!

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Me: Hey, I passed that autism test with flying colors!

Coworker: *Laughing* You’re not supposed to pass it. Me too though.

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Kid: *Quietly chanting* Grandma, Grandma.

Me: Grandma?

Kid: *Holding three baby dolls* It’s where the babies are.

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Kid: I wanna go pee with my friends!

Me: That’s not- how do I phrase this?

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Kid: Playground!

Me: Bus.

Kid: Playground!

Me: Bus.

Kid: *Looks at me for a moment* Bus!

Me: *Holding back excitement* You got it, good job!

It seems so small but for this kid to suddenly understand that in that context the other word fit better? I’m still so proud of them you have no idea—

(I frequently tell all my kids I’m proud of them, they know)

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Switching age groups means I am in need of some new materials. Any donations/gifts are so appreciated!!

Pass President Biden’s budget!

890 so far! Help us get to 1,000 signers!

At a time when working families are having trouble affording everything from healthcare to education to housing to food, we need a budget that lowers costs for millions of households―paid for by making the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share.

President Biden’s FY2025 budget would expand the Child Tax Credit, expand Affordable Care Act subsidies to help millions of people afford healthcare in states that haven’t expanded Medicaid, invest in free pre-K for 2 million kids, implement a national paid family and medical leave program, provide free community college, expand Social Security’s modest benefits, and more.

It would also reduce the national debt by nearly $3 trillion.

He does this by raising the corporate tax rate, implementing a 25% tax on the wealth gains of billionaires and ultra-millionaires, ending tax breaks for excessive CEO pay, closing loopholes that encourage corporations to ship jobs and profits offshore, and much more.

I urge Congress to pass President Biden’s FY2025 budget to invest in working people and our future. By wide margins, the American people think that the wealthy and large profitable corporations should pay more of their fair share in taxes. So endorsing the president’s budget is not only good policy, it’s good politics. Thanks!

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