![]() ![]() “Early signs are good at the Bezos Academy, but we need to have a better long-term strategy as a nation to provide access to high-quality child care and pre-K, and a huge part of that has to be more significant federal funding for those types of programs.” “We’re not going to solve our child care and early education shortage by depending on very wealthy people making schools,” said Aaron Loewenberg, a senior policy analyst for education at the left-leaning think tank New America. These trends have led experts to say that the early education system is still in dire straits, and it will take more than one billionaire to fix it. Additionally, many child care providers are struggling financially due to high inflation. Programs that remain open often can’t serve all interested families, in part because of difficulties hiring and retaining enough workers. states permanently closed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a 2022 report from Child Care Aware of America, a national membership association that works to improve child care and the early childhood profession.Ī new venture: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announces $2 billion fund to build preschools, help homeless families Nearly 16,000 child care programs across dozens of U.S. Half of Americans live in a “child care desert,” or a census tract with more than 50 children under the age of 5 that has either no or very limited licensed care providers, according to estimates by the Center for American Progress. Of course, that’s not nearly enough to make up for the nationwide dearth of affordable programs offering high-quality care and education for young children. The network now has 16 preschools across Washington, Texas and Florida, with the goal of getting to nearly 20 by the end of the year. Bezos has said he was inspired by his experience as a child at a Montessori preschool in New Mexico to invest in high-quality early education.įive years later, Bezos Academy is here. ![]() The move was met with surprise from some Montessori educators and a fair bit of skepticism from many in the early childhood education space. In 2018, Jeff Bezos, one of the richest people in the world, announced that he would create a network of free Montessori-inspired preschools. Watch Video: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos supports Future Engineer program in Nashville ![]()
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