Today’s Issue: Child Care Deregulation Debate; Pandemic's Lasting Reading Toll; ECE in the News = 1.5 cups of coffee.

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📜 Wait — Child Care Costs MORE Than College?

A new report from the Commonwealth Foundation is dropping some numbers that are genuinely hard to ignore. In Pennsylvania, one of the most heavily regulated states for child care in the country, a single parent earning around $37k a year is spending nearly half their income on child care for two kids. That's more than in-state college tuition. The foundation is pointing the finger squarely at over-regulation, things like stringent post-secondary job requirements and strict staffing ratios that drive up costs without necessarily improving outcomes. Even progressive voices agree the current system is broken, though they'd prefer more public investment as the fix over deregulation. Either way, this conversation is landing in statehouses across the country. The policy winds are shifting. Are you positioned to speak to what quality actually requires? 👉 READ THE FULL REPORT HERE

Last week’s poll is in—and it turns out most of you are either hitting play on the white noise (49% of responses)……or loading up the pre-nap snack strategy like seasoned pros (34% of responses).

🗳️ YOUR VOICE: The Deregulation Question

ECE leaders — where do you stand?

As deregulation debates heat up across the country, we want to know what YOU think. Cast your vote:

Vote and see what your fellow ECE pros say! Results in next week's issue.

📖 The Pandemic Left a Reading Gap — And It's Not Closing

Here's the tough news: the kids who were barely born when COVID hit are now in your classrooms — and the data is not good. A new NWEA report tracking students in the 2024–25 school year shows that first and second graders are still performing below pre-pandemic levels in reading. And unlike math scores, which are slowly ticking back up, reading scores have been basically flat since spring 2021.

Why does this matter to ECE leaders? Because the researchers aren't blaming just missed school days. They're pointing to systemic shifts happening outside the classroom, too — including a sharp drop in the number of parents reading regularly to their young children. A 2024 UK survey found fewer than half of children under 5 are read to regularly — a 20-point drop in just 12 years. Sound familiar?

Three things that should be on your radar:

• 📉 Reading scores are stuck. Math is recovering. Reading is not. Researchers say there's "something systemic" going on that can't be pinned to one cause, which means the fix won't be simple either.

• 🏠 The gap starts at home. Kids who missed out on museum trips, peer interaction, and being read to during the pandemic years are still carrying that deficit, especially children from low-income families.

• 🏫 States are stepping up with pre-K. California, New York, and New Mexico are all expanding early childhood access. The window for ECE leaders to lead the literacy conversation is wide open.

This isn't just a K–12 problem. It starts with us, and the opportunity to course-correct belongs to ECE. Read more on what ECE leaders can do 👉 HERE 

📰 ECE In The News

🌵 Arizona Scores $8.4 Million for Early Learning: Arizona just locked in a one-year federal Preschool Development Grant to boost the quality of early care programs statewide. The money, part of a $315M competitive grant program, will go toward professional development for educators, regional family literacy hubs, and systems-building strategies. Big news for one of the states making real moves on early literacy. Check out the details 👉 HERE!

�南 The "Southern Surge" Secret Nobody's Talking About: Everyone's been praising Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana for skyrocketing literacy scores. Most folks give all the credit to phonics and teacher training. But a new piece in The 74 says the real story includes something else: massive investments in early childhood education. Turns out, the same year Mississippi passed its landmark literacy law, they also created their first state pre-K program. Coincidence? Probably not. Get the full story 👉 HERE!

🌐 The Internet is a Playground:

📅 On this Day in History: On March 31, 1889, the Eiffel Tower officially opened in Paris, France, and Parisians were not happy about it. Many considered the iron structure an ugly eyesore and demanded it be torn down after the 1889 World's Fair. Today, it's one of the most iconic structures on the planet, visited by nearly 7 million people a year. Lesson? Sometimes the things we resist most become the most extraordinary. Not a bad message for a field that's constantly being told to change. 🗼

🐍 Game: Word Snake.

YOUR VOICE COUNTS

Is there a topic you want more info on or want to share a funny story? Then let us know! Shoot us a quick email at [email protected]. This newsletter is for you, and well, you should have a say, don't’ you think?