How the Coronavirus is Killing the Middle Class by Eliza Griswold

This puts a human face on the U.S. middle class experience under COVID.  It is simply vastly inequitable and irresponsible for public policy in the form of the stimulus packages to prioritize wealthy shareholders instead of workers’ salaries.

-Angela Valenzuela

How the Coronavirus is Killing

 the Middle Class

By Eliza Griswold | May 14, 2020 | The New Yorker

Day-care centers are among the myriad small businesses that are in danger of liquidating as the economic shutdown prompted by the coronavirus pandemic shows no sign of easing. Illustration by Tallulah Fontaine

Kelly Bates is a forty-one-year-old single mom who lives with her nine-year-old daughter, Danielle Lucky, in Collingdale, Pennsylvania, a middle-income neighborhood of aging red-brick row houses a few miles from the Philadelphia airport. Bates, who is willowy, with large brown eyes, had grown up in South Philadelphia in the seventies and eighties, as part of the city’s burgeoning African-American middle class: her father was a heating contractor, and her mother worked for the Bell Telephone Company. But over the decades crime in the neighborhood increased, and, in 2015, Bates bought a three-bedroom house in Collingdale for seventy thousand dollars, hoping to escape the violence. “I wanted Danielle to go outside and play and not worry about getting shot,” Bates told me recently. Since 2016, Bates has worked as an assistant director at Kinder Academy, a chain of five child-care centers around Philadelphia. Through her work there, she received a grant to earn a bachelor’s degree in early-childhood education, and is about a year away from graduating. “Babies are my passion,” she told me. “I’m part mom, part dad, part therapist, part doctor, and part food-program officer.”

Big Week for Pre-K in the Texas House

Posted by CPPP on Monday, March 9, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Pre-Kindergarten in Texas could get a big boost this legislative session, and it’s encouraging that there are several legislative proposals on the table. The Center for Public Policy Priorities just released a new report with recommendations for ways Texas can use Pre-K to close the opportunity gap for Texas kids.

Governor Abbott has declared Pre-K an emergency item that the Legislature must focus on this session. On March 10 the House Public Education Committee will hear a variety of bills aimed at improving the current Pre-K program.

Research shows that Pre-K works. Studies of Texas’ modest half-day Pre-K program shows that participation is tied to increased math and reading test scores and reductions in needing special education services in later grades. Texas’ children could make even greater strides if Pre-K expanded to a full-day program.

We know that Pre-K is a sound investment. A recent Texas-specific study found that for every dollar invested in Pre-K the state saves $3.50 through the reduced need for remedial or special education, lower crime rates, and decreases in participation in public programs. Full-day, quality Pre-K helps lower-income kids start school ready to learn and pays huge dividends.

Last week State Representative Joe Deshotel, Samsung Austin Semiconductor representative Catherine Morse, University of Texas associate professor Liz Gershoff and CPPP Executive Director Ann Beeson held an engaging panel discussion about Pre-K as part of the State of Texas Children 2015 report release. View video of that panel discussion here.

To build on the positive gains being made by the current Pre-K program, CPPP recommends that the Legislature:

• Establish Pre-K as a full-day program for currently eligible students.
• Improve quality standards such as class size limits, student-teacher ratios, and health screenings.
• Establish an office of early learning to encourage and oversee collaborations between Pre-K, Head Start, child care providers, and state agencies.

Read our new Pre-K report, and let’s urge lawmakers to invest in Pre-K to ensure Texas kids are ready to learn from day one.

For Public Schools, What to Watch in Next Session

The 84th 2014 Texas Legislative Session begins next month.  A lot of shifts. -Angela

For Public Schools, What to Watch in Next Session

• by Morgan Smith
• Dec. 18, 2014

When Texas lawmakers come back to Austin in January, there will be a new governor who touts public schools as a top priority, and plenty of money in the state bank account. But that doesn’t mean everything will go smoothly as the 84th Legislature navigates public education policy.
Here are five things to watch when the legislative session gets underway:
Education Committee Shuffling: Whomever Lt. Gov.-elect Dan Patrick appoints to fill his spot leading the Senate Education Committee — Larry Taylor, Kelly Hancock and Donna Campbell are possible contenders — will wield considerable control over which education bills do and don’t get hearings. Patrick could also opt to combine the chamber’s higher and public education committees, another move that could affect how quickly and easily legislation makes it through the Senate. The House could also take the single education committee approach. With the departure of Higher Education Chairman Dan Branch, R-Dallas, that would leave current Public Education Chairman Jimmie Don Aycock, R-Killeen, who is expected to continue in that role, to preside over both.
Pre-K Fireworks: There’s widespread and bipartisan energy building behind a push to boost early education in the state. But there's a catch — a divide exists between those who want to expand half-day programs to a full day and make them better, and others who want to first get a better handle on how the existing programs are working. Count education advocacy group Raise Your Hand Texas in the former camp, and Gov.-elect Greg Abbott in the latter. 
The School Choice Battleground: In the 2013 session, despite a loud drumbeat leading up to January from supporters including Patrick and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, legislation that would allow students to receive public money to attend private schools died with barely a whimper. Now, a skirmish over private school vouchers is brewing again, but it’s unclear whether 2015 will see a different outcome. Two areas that may instead become the school choice battleground: a proposal known as an “Achievement School District,” which would create a statewide entity to manage underperforming campuses, and efforts to loosen regulation of virtual education.

How Money Gets Doled Out: With a school finance lawsuit awaiting arguments at the Texas Supreme Court, the Legislature could easily punt on making any changes to the way the state distributes funding to school districts. But that might be too much of a delay for some lawmakers. State Sen. Kirk Watson, an Austin Democrat, has already filed a slate of bills that he told the Houston Chronicle he hoped would get the “conversation started” on school finance. And regardless of how Watson’s bills fare, lawmakers can still tinker around the edges of the school finance system as they make choices in how the budget allocates funding across school districts.
Revisiting the Big Ticket Items of 2013: Last time they were in Austin, lawmakers overhauled high school curriculum and scaled back standardized testing requirements. They also approved the first expansion of charter schools in the state since they were established in 1995. If the interim hearings over the last year on the rollout of those new laws are any indication, expect discussion about improving high school students’ access to guidance counselors, and clarifying the process the state uses to close low-performing charters schools.