On June 9, 2011, Governor Robert Bentley signed what has been described as the "nation's toughest immigration law." The primary goal of House Bill 56 (H.B. 56), also known as the Beason-Hammon Alabama Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act, is to drive all undocumented immigrants out of Alabama and dissuade others from coming. On September 28, 2011, Federal District Court Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn upheld major portions of the bill, and many provisions are now in effect. Even prior to its enactment the law seemed to be achieving its aim: Hispanics are fleeing the state in droves.
The new legislation makes it illegal to "knowingly employ, hire for employment, or continue to employ an unauthorized alien." Curiously, though, the law exempts employers of "casual domestic labor within the household" from this provision. This exemption reinforces the notion that domestic work is not "real work," and it maintains the underground status of domestic labor as an employment field. While excluding domestic workers from coverage by labor and employment laws marginalizes them and the industry they work in, applying punitive policies to domestic workers in an effort to purge the market of these workers would neither elevate their profession nor discourage illegal immigration. A better solution would be to institute policies that ensure fair wages and working conditions for domestic workers, thereby serving three public policy goals: (1) protecting workers' basic human rights; (2) making private household labor a more desirable work choice (thus encouraging documented workers to self-select into the field to satisfy demand); and (3) discouraging illegal immigration....
...This Note examines H.B. 56's employment provisions, focusing on the exemption for private household workers. Part I considers the goals of the bill in light of Alabama's shifting immigration demographics. It then looks at the bill's exemption for domestic employers, paying special attention to those persons who tend to hold private household jobs. Part II juxtaposes H.B. 56's domestic-employer exemption with other major employment laws and explains how exempting domestic servants from legislation discourages documented workers from entering or remaining in the field. Part III offers an explanation of why labor and employment legislation often exempts or otherwise fails to protect domestic workers. Finally, Part IV draws out some implications of H.B. 56's exemption for domestic employers and argues that policies that seek to protect rather than punish workers are better tailored to guarantee basic human rights, ensure that the labor demands of Alabama's working women are met, and discourage illegal immigration...
]]>The first in a three-part series about state child care subsidy policies from the CCDF Policies Database. Tomorrow: Assistance for Unemployed Parents Searching for Jobs
The high cost of child care can be a significant obstacle to finding and keeping a job, especially for low-income parents. Child care subsidies can help low-wage parents pay for high-quality care, allowing them to continue working or looking for work, but whether subsidies are available and how much support they provide depends in part on which state families call home.
]]>From the summary:
This report provides an overview of the reality parents face in finding child care under current state assistance approaches. Given today's economy, parents need all the help they can get to find affordable, quality child care in their community. But, when states do not use current market rate surveys and set subsidy rates well below market...
See also:
Parents and the High Cost of Child Care: 2012 Report
Source: Child Care Aware of America, 2012
Parents and the High Cost of Child Care: 2012 Report presents 2011 data reflecting what parents pay for full-time child care in America. It includes average fees for both child care centers and family child care homes. Information was collected through a survey conducted in January 2012 that asked for the average costs charged for child care for infants, 4-year-old children and school-age children in child care centers and in family child care homes in every state. The information was provided by State Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) Network offices and local agencies that maintain data about child care programs in the communities they serve, or it was drawn from the most recent state market rate surveys.
Infographic: No Kidding Around: Where Does Daycare Cost More than College?
Source: GOOD and Column Five Media, 2012
From the summary:
Domestic workers play an increasingly significant role in the U.S. economy. Yet the labor of domestic workers is invisible and unregulated. These factors combine to make domestic workers especially vulnerable to exploitation and abuse on the job....
...Home Economics: The Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work presents the results of the first national survey of domestic workers in the US. It breaks new ground by providing an empirically based and representative picture of domestic employment in 21st century America. We asked a sample of domestic workers a standardized set of questions focusing in four aspects of the industry:
• pay rates, benefits, and their impact on the lives of workers and their families;
• employment arrangements and employers' compliance with employment agreements;
• workplace conditions, on-the-job injuries, and access to health care;
• abuse at work and the ability to remedy substandard conditions.
We surveyed 2,086 nannies, caregivers, and housecleaners in 14 metropolitan areas. The survey was conducted in nine languages. Domestic workers from 71 countries were interviewed. The study employed a participatory methodology in which 190 domestic workers and organizers from 34 community organizations collaborated in survey design, the fielding of the survey, and the preliminary analysis of the data.
See also:
- Key Findings
- Recommendations
- Explore the Data
Using data from the Head Start Program Information Report (PIR), CLASP has developed two new fact sheets providing a look at the Head Start preschool and Early Head Start programs in the 2010-2011 program year. These new fact sheets explore the characteristics of children and families served by the programs, as well as the programs themselves and their staff.
Related:
Early Head Start Participants, Programs, Families and Staff in 2011
This interactive worksheet comes from CLASP's Putting it Together: A Guide to Financing Comprehensive Services in Child Care and Early Education. States and communities embarking on financing partnerships to expand access to comprehensive services can use this worksheet to begin mapping the need, available resources, and potential partnering strategies that will help them move forward. This document may be downloaded, edited, and saved.
]]>This paper summarizes state-reported activities to better serve and engage with Limited English Proficient (LEP) families and providers through state child care assistance programs. The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) State Plans, last revised for FFY 2012-2013, serve as the source of new information on how states' activities and policies target LEP and immigrant families, children, and providers.
From the press release:
Today, CLASP and ZERO TO THREE (ZTT), released the new report Expanding Access to Early Head Start: State Initiatives for Infants and Toddlers at Risk, which highlights current state initiatives to expand and enhance Early Head Start (EHS) services for infants, toddlers, and their families.
CLASP and ZTT found that 23 states are using at least one of four approaches to build on the federally funded EHS program:
- Nine states have initiatives that extend the day or year of existing EHS services
- Nineteen states have initiatives that expand the capacity of EHS programs to increase the number of children and pregnant women served
- Two states provide resources and assistance to child care providers
- Six states support partnerships between EHS and center-based and/or family child care providers
From the summary:
CLASP's newly released Putting it Together: A Guide to Financing Comprehensive Services in Child Care and Early Education aims to help states look beyond the major sources of child care and early education funding and consider alternative federal financing sources to bring comprehensive services into early childhood settings. Comprehensive services like preventive health care, developmental screenings, and family support are critical to the success of children - especially those who are most at risk for developmental challenges and delays. Yet the sources of child care funding historically available to states have limited supply and allowable uses, and are insufficient to provide comprehensive services in most child care and early education settings....CLASP's financing guide walks early childhood stakeholders through the steps of building financing partnerships, and provides critical information and resources related to specific federal funding streams that support comprehensive services for children. The guide includes funding examples from state and local communities and technical details on the allowable uses of funding streams to support comprehensive services.
From the press release:
First Focus today released a report finding that, for the first time since the children's advocacy organization began its budget analyses in 2008, "discretionary" spending (the budget decisions made by Congress through annual appropriations bills) on children has declined for two consecutive years. Children's Budget 2012 observes that less than 8 percent of the federal budget is invested in children.... Children's Budget 2012 is a detailed analysis of more than 180 federal investments in children. They range from investments children benefit from every day like education, to acute problems such as child abuse and neglect prevention. The analysis also includes initiatives not traditionally recognized as investments in children, like federal affordable housing initiatives and Social Security. Discretionary spending on children has declined by about $2 billion since 2010....
See also:
Abstract
Slide Show
ChildrensBudget.org
Minneapolis Fed economists Art Rolnick and Rob Grunewald advocate an investment in early childhood development programs. These programs are rarely viewed within the context of economic development, but the authors think that is a mistake, that such an investment would result in high economic returns.
The website includes articles and a list of other related websites.
]]>Politicians from both sides of the aisle agree: early childhood education plays a crucial role in ensuring America's global competitiveness. Even amid challenging fiscal climates, states have advanced innovative approaches to early learning policies, and new federal initiatives are trying to sustain their momentum and expand their reach. What's next for early learning, and what can the White House and Congress do to support it?
This National Journal policy summit featured a panel of experts exploring how the two presidential candidates' visions for early education might translate into policy and the impact these policies might have on the nation's long term economic health. The discussion also examined the current early childhood education policies at work in the states and offered a range of policy solutions to guarantee American children have the tools they need to succeed in a global economy.
Early Childhood Education's Impact on the Economy from National Journal and National Journal on FORA.tv
]]>The state will begin a pilot program aimed at providing more child care in it's booming western oil region.
From the abstract:
Social Security provides the basic foundation for the economic security of retired workers, workers who become disabled before retiring, and the children and spouses of workers who die or become disabled. Social Security is particularly important for workers, such as most direct care workers, who received modest compensation for the work they did during their working years. This issue brief looks at the importance of Social Security and how proposed cuts to the program would hurt direct care workers.
