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A new study shows health disparities cost Texas billions of dollars; Senate rejects impeachment articles against Mayorkas, ending trial against Cabinet secretary; Iowa cuts historical rural school groups.

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The Senate dismisses the Mayorkas impeachment. Maryland Lawmakers fail to increase voting access. Texas Democrats call for better Black maternal health. And polling confirms strong support for access to reproductive care, including abortion.

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Rural Wyoming needs more vocational teachers to sustain its workforce pipeline, Ohio environmental advocates fear harm from a proposal to open 40-thousand forest acres to fracking and rural communities build bike trail systems to promote nature, boost the economy.

WA Counties Fail on Childcare “Report Cards”

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Wednesday, February 11, 2009   

Spokane, WA - Washington has a long way to go to offer parents access to affordable, quality child care. New child care report cards, based on surveys of wages, costs and employee turnover, rank ten Washington counties - and for the most part, the grades are "D's." The coalition that did the assessment, called Smart Start for Washington, also supports the idea of unionizing for care-givers. They say that at present child care centers have no input into how the state chooses to invest in early learning, and low wages and high turnover are among the biggest problems in their business.

Marci Noel-McLaughlin, a child care center owner in Spokane, says the right to organize is important – but union membership would be optional.

"Even if your center owner was a union member, as a teacher, you can choose not to be. We're all in it because we just want to have a choice and a voice in what happens in this profession."

Noel-McLaughlin says it's hard to keep child care center doors open on what the state currently pays, and just as hard to keep good people, paying minimum wages without benefits.

"They're required, because they work with children, to have certain education levels. They have to take STARS training; it's mandated by the government. They have to have CPR, and tuberculosis testing – there's so many guidelines, and there's not even resources to help them pay for those."

Noel-McLaughlin says child care businesses operate on slim margins, but can't always raise rates for working families - and about one-third of children in day care are subsidized by the state. She says Smart Start has 2,000 child care centers interested in collective bargaining; state lawmakers are considering bills in both House and Senate to allow it.

The bills are HB 1329 and SB 5572. The county report cards are available online, at
www.smartstartforwa.org




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