Next up, McDonald’s and WalMart…
Via Washington Post:
Debbie James-Dean graduated from high school in 1979 and has spent much of her career working in child care. She was anxious when her director at Kids Are Us Learning Center in Southeast Washington told her she needed to go back to school.
“I was afraid I couldn’t do it,” she said. And earning $12.75 an hour, she couldn’t afford text books, let alone college tuition.
But she got a scholarship, and last summer she enrolled in her first college course: Educating the Young Child.
She’s one of hundreds of child-care teachers in the District who must return to school under new licensing regulations for child-care centers that went into effect in December.
More than a decade after Washington D.C. set out to create the most comprehensive public preschool system in the country, the city is directing its attention to reforming the patchwork of programs that serve infants and toddlers.
The new regulations put the District at the forefront of a national effort to improve the quality of care and education for the youngest learners. City officials want to address an academic achievement gap that research shows is already evident between children from poor and middle-class families by the age of 18 months.