The Century Foundation

70 years ago, Brown v Board of Education ended the legal segregation of schools. Despite overwhelming evidence that diverse, integrated schools are better for all students, far too many children in 2024 attend classrooms apart from their peers of different economic and racial backgrounds. Our new survey with Morning Consult shows Americans are concerned about persistent school segregation, and want our leaders to step up and do more to diversify schools. Learn more: https://bit.ly/44HEvtS

"There's a child care center in Virginia with a waitlist of over 400 kids. They can't afford to hire more early educators to fill those classrooms without raising costs for families. The only solution is federal funding" The shortage of affordable child care in the US is hurting our kids, workers, and economy. We need real solutions to build up our child care supply and create good paying jobs for early educators. Laura Valle-Gutierrez spoke with NewsNation about how we get there:

"People in northern states might think of segregation as a problem nationally, but not realize that a lot of the school segregation is right in their own backyard. New Jersey’s schools are among the most segregated in America, more so than in Alabama or Mississippi." TCF's Halley Potter spoke with NJ.com about why America's schools are still so segregated, and how teaching families about the realities of segregation—and the ways that diverse schools benefit their kids— is key to making progress. https://lnkd.in/eBUbAnwv

How the nation’s leaders care for older residents provides insight into what they think about all health policy. Our new piece from Health Care Reform director Jeanne Lambrew zooms in on five key health policy metrics under each president including Medicaid, Prescription Drug Costs, and Investment in Long-Term Services and Supports and finds that older Americans fared far better under President Biden than under Trump. https://bit.ly/3xTGTld

Given the limitations on insurance coverage for abortion, most patients pay hundreds of dollars entirely out-of-pocket for abortion care. Abortion funds are a roadmap for providing community-based support to people seeking abortion care. https://bit.ly/3Vv5DXV

"This is not a personal failing, this is not something to feel guilty about. This is a societal problem, and it's something that could be solved." This week on USA TODAY's "The Excerpt" podcast, catch TCF director Julie Kashen discussing America's ongoing child care crisis, it's cost to families and our economy, and how new efforts by state lawmakers are helping expand access to affordable, quality care. https://lnkd.in/epC5ggrF

Online students, schools, and taxpayers in Minnesota are now better protected from the risks posed by online program managers (OPMs): for-profit companies that partner with colleges to run their online degree programs. Starting today, OPMs that sign new contracts with public #colleges in Minnesota can't take a cut of tuition for recruiting students into online programs. But why does this matter? OPMs often use tuition-sharing agreements, meaning they get a portion of the tuition for each student they recruit into a school's #onlineprograms. This setup creates dangerous financial incentives, leading to: - Aggressive and deceptive recruiting practices - Watered-down admissions requirements - Increased tuition prices Tuition-sharing agreements have been shown to harm students by pushing them into low-quality programs and burdening them with debt they can't repay, leaving taxpayers to pick up the tab. Minnesota’s new law helps ensure that higher education prioritizes quality programs, not profit. Other states should follow suit. Learn more from TCF Fellow Amber D. Villalobos, Ph.D.: https://bit.ly/3zqqc1g

NEW: This year’s flawed and delayed FAFSA rollout is set to widen the already existing gaps in college access. Original analysis out today from TCF's Peter Granville finds that declines in FAFSA completion rates are 20% worse in areas of the country with high poverty and majority Black or Latino residents. The drop-off will mean fewer students of color and students from low-income families going to college in the fall and will likely have ripple effects for years to come. Learn more about the consequences of this year's FAFSA failure, and how schools and Congress can prevent and prepare for drops in enrollment: bit.ly/3xA2hvO

Employers are feeling the impact of our broken child care system on their workforces, so they're stepping into the child care space in order to better recruit and retain working parents. How they implement child care benefits can either help lay the groundwork for the comprehensive, publicly funded child care our communities need—or exacerbate existing inequities in the sector. A new piece from Julie Kashen, Lea Woods, and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)'s Lauren Hogan offers five critical considerations for employers seeking to provide accessible, affordable, high-quality child care: https://bit.ly/3RGMa6k

A majority of parents would prefer to enroll their kids in a #bilingual school where they can learn a second language in addition to English over a school focused on English-only #education. We need more bilingual programs in our schools to meet this demand. Today in Education Week, Ileana Najarro breaks down the results of a new survey from TCF's Conor Williams, Jonathan Zabala, and Morning Consult. Read the full piece: https://bit.ly/3RGrNq6