NAEYC Children's Champions
September 18, 2009
 
Early Learning Challenge Fund Passes House of Representatives
Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 3221, which includes the Early Learning Challenge Fund, by a vote of 253 in favor to 171 against.  To view the exact language of the bill, go to http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/legislation/StudentAidandFiscalResponsibilityAct.pdf .  The Senate expects to introduce its bill very soon.
 
New Chairman of Senate Committee dealing with Head Start, Child Care, Education and Health and New Chair of the Agriculture Committee
Following the death of Senator Kennedy who chaired the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) - which deals with child care, Head Start, elementary and secondary education, special education, higher education, education research and a host of other issues - Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) will be the new committee Chair.  Senator Harkin also chairs the subcommittee on Health and Human Services, Labor and Education Appropriations.  To learn more about Senator Harkin, go to his website at http://harkin.senate.gov/  Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas) will chair the Agriculture committee which deals with child nutrition programs.
 
New Data Tool on Children of Immigrants
"The Children of Immigrants Data Tool" from the Urban Institute provides detailed charts of the characteristics of children age 0 to 17 nationwide and for individual states and the District of Columbia. Statistics on 21 features include citizenship and the immigrant status (foreign vs. native-born) of children and their parents; children's race, ethnicity, and school enrollment; parents' education and English proficiency; and family composition, income, and work effort. A customized chart can present either the number or share of children with a given characteristic in the states chosen or nationally. A data table is displayed below each chart and can be downloaded in Excel.  http://datatool.urban.org/charts/datatool/pages.cfm
 
Examples of what the new tool reveals:

• Twice as many native-born children of immigrants in Maryland as in California have a parent with a four-year college education (56 versus 24 percent). Nationwide, the share is 30 percent.
• Native-born children of immigrants are less likely than children with native-born parents to have a college-educated parent. The difference is 24 versus 35 percent in California and 30 versus 34 percent nationwide.
• In contrast, in Maryland, native-born children of immigrants are more likely than children of natives to have a college-educated parent (56 versus 42 percent; see chart and table).

 
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