University of Michigan researchers from the Education Policy Initiative (EPI) at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the Marsal Family School of Education have partnered with MDRC, District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), and the Urban...
Betsey Stevenson, States News Service: "I think that the important takeaway is that women can be an important source of labor for the construction industry. While child care is important for women, it is equally important to note that construction...
The U.S. labor market grew by 311,000 jobs in February. Unemployment ticked up to 3.6%, while the number of employed expanded and the labor force participation rate also ticked up. Since October 2022, labor force participation has expanded slowly...
Betsey Stevenson, Care for Business: "It drives me crazy when I hear people describe (childcare) as a personal problem. It’s so many uniquely American, right? ... The inflation we’re facing right now has nothing to do with money, and has everything...
A new website answers child care providers' frequently asked questions about Michigan's Child Development and Care Subsidy—an underused resource that can help families pay for child care.
The University of Michigan's Poverty Solutions developed...
In the latest wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, many parents found themselves at home watching their children, rather than working, due to daycare closures. Betsey Stevenson, professor of public policy and economics, explained how child care closures...
How Kohn Professor Luke Shaefer and the pandemic paved the way for an expanded Child Tax Credit
By Lauren Slagter
The passage of the American Rescue Plan Act in March ushered in a "euphoric" couple of weeks for Luke Shaefer, the Hermann and...
Federal lawmakers continue to seek out University of Michigan faculty members to lend their expertise and knowledge to help inform federal policy.
In the last year, 13 U-M faculty members and researchers testified at 14 congressional hearings...
Betsey Stevenson countered arguments against President Biden’s Build Back Better legislation as the bill passed the House and moved into the Senate.
“There is just absolute historic investment in childcare that is really going to benefit so many...
Betsy Stevenson weighed in on labor market recovery, the job market, the tampon tax, and more.
On labor market recovery
While most of the United States seems to be recovering from the worst parts of the pandemic, the job crisis it caused is...
This week, Betsey Stevenson helped make sense of the data coming from national jobs reports and unemployment numbers.
"The percentage of Americans employed fell off a cliff in the early pandemic. We’re now 75 percent of the way back up that...
The Build Back Better Act includes comprehensive early childhood policy that would benefit children, families, and educators, argues Christina Weiland in an opinion in the Globe Post.
“Hand-wringing about the bill’s cost obscures the fact that...
Existing research has largely overlooked the variation in maternal employment effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) depending on the age of their children. In a new study, Katherine Michelmore and Natasha Pilkauskas, both associate...
Within the Congressional reconciliation bill, Democrats are hoping to pass a child care plan that would cap costs of child care, implement a national, free pre-school program, and boost child care workers' wages.
"We've documented (these...
Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, both professors of public policy and economics, were among the 127 economists demanding Democrats in Congress to invest in quality childcare.
"Childcare is an economic problem," Stevenson said. "It is part of...
The importance of access to child care in the economic recovery was emphasized by Ford School economics professor Betsey Stevenson in testimony before the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on Wednesday, June 23.
"The choices you...
“We are creating inequality 20 years down the line that is even greater than we have today,” said Stevenson. “This is how inequality begets inequality.”
Read the full New York Times article...
Stevenson said once parents pull back from work, they can fall behind forever. “You’re just not put on the same kind of track, and you’re not given the same kind of access to promotions and raises.”
According to NPR, Stevenson hopes the pandemic...
“We had what you might even call a gendered shutdown. The kinds of industries that had to send people home, that shut down, disproportionately employed women," said Stevenson. "How long it takes women to recover is going to depend on the [childcare]...
"What's unusual is the initial stage of the recession impacted women more," said Stevenson. "What's normal in this recession is the ongoing negative effects tend to hit women. They face a double whammy, adding that to this massive child-care crisis...
Weill Hall, David G. and Judith C. Frey Classroom (1210)
Universal child care has been a longstanding goal of child care advocates in both Canada and the United States since the 1960s, yet in 2016 that goal remains stubbornly elusive in both federations despite decades of activism. Responsibility for child care delivery has been shared in both countries between federal, “meso” (provincial/state), and local governments with more of that responsibility being downloaded to the state/provincial level since the 1990s. Dr. Collier will present two meso level cases (Ontario and Michigan) to understand how child care advocates have navigated these decentralized landscapes. What factors explain successful policy outcomes and what barriers persist? Are universal programs and longer term social justice advocacy claims viable in decentralized federations?
View the poster.
