Recent changes to the CSPP Block Grant raise concerns about the impact on California’s quality rating system and the future of the state’s involvement in quality improvement. 

In 2012 California Competes called for the state to articulate specific degree attainment goals to advance our regional economies and local communities.  In this new report, Mind the Gap: Delivering on California’s Promise for Higher Education, California Competes finds that the state now faces a degree attainment gap of 2.4 million by 2025.

The importance of quality in early childhood programs cannot be overemphasized. High-quality early care and education programs offer the tools to close the achievement gap, or better still, prevent it before it even appears.

Changes in employment practices have increased the number of hourly and part-time workers, many of whom have little control over their schedules. This fact sheet outlines the difficulties they face, and efforts in San Francisco to find solutions.

Voluntary home visiting programs provide critical support to vulnerable children and families in the hopes of setting young children off on a brighter future. This report provides county-by-county data on the availability of voluntary home visiting programs in California, as well as several estimates of the need for these programs.

The brains of infants and toddlers develop at an incredible rate, forming the foundation for lifelong learning and health. The stimulation that children receive in these early years powerfully influence not only their academic and material success, but also – critically – their physical and mental health as well.

Access to affordable child care helps families achieve economic security, offers children stability and the opportunity to thrive, and strengthens California’s economy overall. This brief highlights key pieces of research that describe California’s child care system, and reviews proposed policy changes to improve it.

Economic and labor force changes since the Great Recession of 2007 have changed the way many American workers support themselves and their families. This issue brief highlights some of the research on unstable work schedules, and describes the provisions of legislation in San Francisco that seeks to increase predictable scheduling among certain workers.

Voluntary home visiting programs are a powerful tool to improve outcomes for at-risk children and families. Families enrolled in home visiting programs are visited by trained professionals on a regular basis who provide practical tips and information – as well as emotional support – on a range of issues.

Approximately 5 million Californians lack paid sick days protection. When, inevitably, they become ill, they can either go to work while  ill, or they can stay home and lose out on a day’s pay. Sometimes, the decision to stay home can cost them their jobs. And if these workers are parents or family caregivers, the choices are harder still.

Based on The Obamacare Opportunity: Implementing the Affordable Care Act to Improve Health, Reduce Hardship, and Grow the Economy for All Californians and subsequent research, Next Generation and East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) developed a set of concrete recommendations for the Legislative Analyst’s Office

 California was the first state in the nation to enact legislation in response to the Affordable Care Act. This report suggests that California can take advantage of ACA implementation as a means toward increasing access to health coverage and vital benefits while also fostering work support programs and improving the statewide economy.

California will face serious economic challenges and struggle to maintain its prosperity as a state if it fails to address mushrooming childhood poverty. Prosperity Threatened, our analysis of the latest Census Bureau data found that childhood poverty is endemic among California’s fastest-growing demographic segment – Hispanics – with nearly one in three Hispanic children in California living at or below the poverty line.

American children coming of age today will work in a global, technologically advanced economy, competing with peers in India, China and other countries. This report details the progress China and India are making in expanding their labor forces to play a bigger role in the global economy and the urgent implications of these policies for U.S. competitiveness.