The agency that I decided to focus my study on was the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, which can be found at http://www.naccrra.org. The agency offers readers the opportunity to subscribe to one of their various newsletters, with topics ranging from advocacy, public policy, and family resources. I subscribed to all of the them, so that I could follow the various topics that the agency addressed.
One of the topics that caught my eye this week was the push to contact local political leaders to take a stand against the recent sequestration that has taken effect in our country. This topic really hit home for me because my Head Start and Early Head Start program is facing a 5.3% budget cut on the remainder of our fiscal year. This cut adds up to around $122,000 that we have to cut from services. We are doing the best that we can to keep from cutting services offered to children, but we may have to shorten the current Head Start school year by one week in order to cover part of the loss. This means that our children can miss out on a week's worth of valuable learning that could help them prepare for entering school in the fall.
I also took the opportunity to sit down and review the agency's Strategic Plan for 2010-2015 to see what their goals were for improving quality child care, which can be found at http://www.naccrra.org/sites/default/files/default_site_pages/2012/strategic_plan_2010-2015.pdf. I found it interesting that about 90% of the child care programs in our country are NOT considered high quality. This is due to high staff turnover, lack of staff training and education, poor state requirements, and the lack of funding. As a parent who is currently looking for child care for my almost 4 year old daughter and will be newborn, I am scared to think of the cost that child care is going to be for my family. As an educator, I know the importance of high quality care, but as a parent, I simply cannot afford it. I am hoping that as I continue to learn about NACCRRA, I will find an answer to finding affordable high quality child care before I actually come to need it.
Hi Tiffany!
ReplyDeleteThe NIEER also had an article on the sequestration and the effects on education. I think our organizations are very similar in that there seems to be a focus on public policy. I will be curious to check back with you in a few weeks to see if these organizations stay similar in their posts.
Tiffany,
ReplyDeleteI love NACCRRA. I have used it numerous times during my 20+ years as an early childhood educator. Their information is always up to date and valuable for both educators and parents. I too am concerned about the effects of the sequestration on our country, especially our children and the elderly. I know that it must be hard to face the future at your job with such uncertainity. Please keep us up to date!
Thanks,
Monette
Tiffany,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great information, and I applaud your initiative to look at their strategic plan! I feel for you with your job situation and hope all turns out just as you want it to. I do believe the saying about "one door closing and another one opening". Thank you for the insight and information about sequestration. Have a great weekend and thanks again, Tammy
There are so many budget cuts happening everywhere. In my community we are trying to mandate full day kindergarten but we are making HUGE cuts to the budget. Teachers are loosing money and class sizes are growing. I think that it is very important for educators to get their voice heard! Hopefully education budgets will start to turn around and education will start to improve.
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