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Stacy Wall Schweikhart has been named Chief Executive Officer of Learn to Earn Dayton and will assume full-time responsibilities August 1, 2022. “We’re thrilled to share that Stacy Wall Schweikhart will be Learn to Earn Dayton’s new CEO,” said Colleen Ryan, Chair of the Learn to Earn Dayton Board of Trustees. “Stacy has deep roots in the Dayton community and a distinguished 20-year career in public service. We’re excited about her breadth of experience, and her knowledge of the region will be an incredible asset.” "I am honored to join the Learn to Earn Dayton team," said Schweikhart, who currently is the Director of Strategy and Engagement at the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission. "I have dedicated my career to building community with an intentional focus on public engagement. With our immensely talented staff and dedicated Board, I look forward to advancing Learn to Earn’s commitment to reducing disparities in education outcomes and fostering success for all children in Montgomery County.” At MVRPC, Schweikhart convened partners and led planning processes around regional economic development, livable and equitable communities, broadband and digital equity, air and water quality, environment and sustainability, and transit and mobility. She was intensely involved in the region’s disaster relief efforts following the 2019 tornadoes. Before coming to MVRPC in 2019, Schweikhart held various leadership positions in her 18 years of service to the City of Kettering. She earned a Master of Arts in Public Administration from the University of Dayton, and she has a certified planner distinction from the American Institute of Certified Planners. Schweikhart succeeds Dr. Thomas J. Lasley II, who was Learn to Earn’s first CEO and who returned to that position on an interim basis following the resignation of Kristina Scott in March. Lasley will be joining the Montgomery County Educational Service Center where he will assume responsibilities for education policy and advocacy work.

By Maria Carrasco May 25, 2022 A new grant program created and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation aims to help high school students complete an associate degree or credential just a year after they graduate high school. The program, called Accelerate ED: Seamless Pathways to Degrees and Careers, is giving 12 teams across the U.S. approximately $175,000 each to scale existing initiatives that help students obtain an associate degree at the end of their “13th year.” Click here to read more!

LOCAL NEWS By Eileen McClory Learn to Earn Dayton and the Montgomery County Educational Services Center are one of 12 organizations from across the country selected to participate in a grant program, Accelerate ED, which will focus on ways to create a “13th year” or year of additional classes preparing the student for the workforce. Click here to read more!

Students with perfect attendance at school and in afterschool programs will receive a $25 gift card every two weeks DAYTON, Ohio (February 25, 2022) - Dayton Public Schools and the Northwest Dayton Partnership recently announced new attendance incentives for students at Fairview Elementary School, Edwin Joel Brown Middle School, Wogaman Middle School and Thurgood Marshall STEM High School. Beginning February 28, 2022, students at these schools will receive a $25 gift card every two weeks if they have perfect attendance and no office referrals. In addition, a new after-school incentive program will begin at Wogaman Middle School and Thurgood Marshall STEM High School. Students who have perfect attendance at school and in the new after-school programs will receive an additional $25 gift card every two weeks. “Attendance is directly connected to student achievement,” said Dr. Elizabeth Lolli, superintendent of Dayton Public Schools. “By incentivizing students to have perfect attendance, student achievement will also increase. We are excited to see how this new program will impact the attendance, academic performance, and culture at the four schools.” During the afterschool activities, students will receive academic tutoring through Revival Center Ministries and participate in recreational programs provided by the YMCA. Certified teachers and other qualified individuals will offer academic assistance, while recreational activities will include team sports, culturally relevant artistic opportunities, and STEAM-related enrichment, including robotics.NOTE: Fairview Elementary and Edwin Joel Brown Middle School already have after-school programs in place and will not participate in the after-school incentive program.“The YMCA of Greater Dayton has a long history of partnering to strengthen the foundations of our community,” said Josh Haynes, executive director for the YMCA of Greater Dayton.. “Our involvement as a partner in the after-school enrichment program for Dayton Public Schools is another example of our commitment to youth development. The Y is excited to provide positive role models on site daily to mentor students through friendly competitions and sports activities. Incentivizing kids by having fun helps their commitment to the academic support the program includes, and ultimately to a brighter future for those participating.” Sharon Conyers, who manages academic support services at Revival Center Ministries, said an emphasis on academics will also have significant benefits for participants. “Tutoring is important in afterschool programs because it helps students build academic skills and assists them in areas that are challenging for them,” she said. “It also helps with improved work and study habits. Evidence suggests that academic tutoring can be an effective way to help students improve their academic skills, stay in school, and graduate from high school.” The purpose of these incentives, in addition to providing safe, high-quality afterschool programming to underserved students, is to explore whether increased student engagement along with parent support will improve academic and behavioral outcomes. If this proves to be successful, the incentives may be expanded to other schools in the future. “We are trying to create new energy around the importance of school attendance and positive student engagement in school programs. Our community needs young people who are active and engaged learners and this is yet another way that our efforts can complement so much of the other good work that is occurring in the community. We must use innovative ways to reach students and families. They need to know that we see, hear, and love them...this is just the beginning!" Nina Carter, Learn to Earn Dayton’s senior vice president for place-based strategies. The after-school pilot programs, which were made possible by a contribution from the Dayton Foundation, will begin on February 28, 2022 and will end May 31, 2022. During this time, an application will be sent to the Ohio Department of Education to request funds for continuation of the program. About Northwest Dayton Partnership The Northwest Dayton Partnership (NWDP) is a new cross-sector collaboration between Learn to Earn Dayton, the City of Dayton, The Dayton Foundation, CityWide Development, Dayton Metro Library, Dayton Public Schools, Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission, PhoenixNext, Preschool Promise, Omega CDC, and other community stakeholders. One goal of the NWDP is to create high-performing K-12 schools and close opportunity gaps. NWDP is taking a two-generation approach by working with children and the adults in their lives. Learn to Earn Dayton’s mission is to foster all Montgomery County children’s success from birth until they earn a degree or high-quality credential. Contact Information: Lauren Mixon | lmixon@learntoearndayton.org | 937.225.4598, ext. 3111

Ohio's class of 2021 left $111 million in Pell Grant Aid on the table DAYTON, Ohio (Friday, February 4, 2022) – Ohio's high school class of 2022 could miss out on millions of dollars in college grant money they can access by taking roughly an hour to fill out their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). According to a study from the National College Attainment Network, Ohio's high school class of 2021 left $111 million in Pell Grant aid on the table because they did not fill out a FAFSA. Ohio ranked eighth highest amongst all states in Pell Grant money left on the table. After filing the FAFSA, nearly 40 percent of Ohio high school seniors qualify for Pell Grants of up to $6,495 per year. Pell Grants do not need to be repaid, and they can be used for a broad range of technical and academic education after high school. Completing the FAFSA also unlocks access to billions of dollars in financial aid for college, including grants, scholarships, college work-study jobs and subsidized student loans. Ohio currently ranks 14th nationally, with 36 percent of high school seniors completing a FAFSA through January 21, 2022, unchanged from last year. "One of the biggest reasons families don't complete the FAFSA is that they don't think they will qualify for financial aid. However, 85 percent of families who complete the FAFSA do get help paying for education after high school," said Learn to Earn Dayton CEO Kristina Scott. "Financial aid is limited, and that's why everyone who plans to go to college in the fall should complete their FAFSA as soon as possible." Students should fill out the FAFSA during their senior year of high school and each year of college. Adults thinking about going back to school can also file the FAFSA and qualify for Pell Grants and other financial aid. Students should fill out the FAFSA during their senior year of high school and each year of college. Adults thinking about going back to school can also file the FAFSA and qualify for Pell Grants and other financial aid. Families can complete the FAFSA on the myStudentAid mobile app or the mobile-friendly FAFSA website. Students and their parents should complete the 2022-2023 FAFSA, and they can complete the form separately and go between their phones and desktop computers. "Most jobs that will support a family require a degree or specialized training after graduating from high school," said Superintendent of the Montgomery County ESC, Shannon Cox. "Our Montgomery County schools are committed to helping families understand the importance of completing the FAFSA while supporting the family through the process. We need to ensure our families feel comfortable in the process."

Grants will fund organizations deeply invested in improving the quality of life for residents in Northwest Dayton The Northwest Dayton Partnership Steering Committee, with support from Learn to Earn Dayton, today announced they are investing up to $1.45 million in community-based organizations’ work to improve outcomes in education, community well-being, racial equity, and economic mobility for Northwest Dayton’s children and families. “Through the grant making process, we want to help community-based organizations grow stronger and make faster progress on the complex issues facing families in Northwest Dayton. Our goal is to distribute resources equitably and to build a community where all people have the resources and relationships they need to thrive,” said Northwest Dayton Steering Committee Member Cheryl Garrett. Organizations located in Northwest Dayton Partnership boundaries or serving the people of the Northwest Dayton Partnership area are invited to apply. Projects should be consistent with one or more of the Northwest Dayton Partnership’s initiatives and core goals: Building high-quality early childhood education for children birth to age five, Supporting high-performing public K-12 schools that serve students’ academic and social needs, Aligning, supporting, and implementing place-based community revitalization activities, particularly those that address the social determinants of health (such as economic status, social factors, food access, health access, educational attainment and environment), Increasing racial equity and economic mobility in Northwest Dayton. Community residents and other stakeholders helped create the grant application, and they will participate throughout the grantmaking process, including deciding which applications to fund. “The Northwest Dayton Partnership and Learn to Earn Dayton want to help solve some of our communities’ stickiest problems, and we think the best way to do that is by asking residents to decide which proposals they want to fund,” said Learn to Earn Dayton CEO Kristina Scott. “Northwest Dayton is a robust and diverse community, and residents understand their neighborhoods’ assets and opportunities. We have seen that when community members make funding decisions, they stay invested in the results long beyond any single grant cycle.” These grants are part of a large-scale $8.1 million effort to use a two-generation approach to build economic and racial equity in Northwest Dayton and will enhance the Northwest Dayton Partnership’s investments in Dayton Public Schools, Omega CDC and Preschool Promise. Dayton Public Schools will receive support for school improvement efforts at six DPS schools serving Northwest Dayton students, including designing wraparound services and supports for students and their families. "The enrichment and support opportunities being explored through the NWDP effort offer incredible possibilities for the students and families in this sector of the city,” said Dr. Elizabeth Lolli, Superintendent of the Dayton Public Schools. “If the work being explored and planned can be fully implemented and sustained, it would and should be truly transformational for the impacted neighborhoods and schools." Omega CDC will receive support for the Hope Center for Families’ work modeling a two-generation facility to support workforce development and career credentialing for adults, family economic stability, children’s health and wellness, and capacity building in education from cradle to career. “The Omega CDC is pleased to receive the NWDP catalytic investment, which will accelerate the Hope Center for Families' efforts to build economic and racial equity in a region of the city that has experienced disinvestment for years. It is great to be a part of something that promises change for families in Northwest Dayton,” said Omega CDC CEO Rev. Vanessa Ward. Preschool Promise will receive $2.2 million to help families afford child care for infants and toddlers, to implement a pilot program to increase wages for child care teachers working at sites in Northwest Dayton, and to understand what kind of parenting classes and resources parents of young children would most appreciate. “We are excited to partner with Learn to Earn Dayton to help families access high-quality early childhood education in the Northwest Dayton Partnership zone. We know that teachers deserve respectable wages for the important work they do and that families need help paying for high-quality child care and preschool,” shared Robyn Lightcap, Executive Director of Preschool Promise, Inc. Organizations interested in learning more can visit the Northwest Dayton Partnership website.The RFP, eligibility quiz, frequently asked questions, and other resources are available online. Learn to Earn will host an information session for potential applicants on Friday, January 21, from 10 a.m. to noon via Zoom. Space is limited, and registration is strongly recommended. Interested applicants must complete the eligibility quiz by January 28, and the full applications are due on February 25. About Northwest Dayton Partnership The Northwest Dayton Partnership (NWDP) brings together people and public and private sector organizations to dramatically improve results at a population level and reduce racial disparities. NWDP aligns opportunities, bolsters the infrastructure critical for the community's success and equips families to pursue their goals and thrive. The Northwest Dayton Partnership community steering committee guides the work. Current members include Cheryl Garrett, Geraldine Pegues, Chad Sloss, Sharon Taste and Lauretta Williams, who all live or work in Northwest Dayton. About Learn to Earn Dayton Learn to Earn Dayton fosters the success of all Montgomery County children from birth until they graduate from college or earn a high-quality credential. Our big goal is for 60 percent of Montgomery County's working-age adults to have a 2-year or 4-year college degree or a high-quality credential by 2025.

NATIONAL NEWS Harlem Children's Zone Harlem Children’s Zone is proud to announce that we are engaging with high-performing community organizations in Northwest Dayton, Ohio to build racial and economic equity for children and families in the city. Funded by a two-year, $8 million grant from our long-time friends, Blue Meridian Partners, the Northwest Dayton Partnership is a public-private effort that brings together numerous groups — including Learn to Earn Dayton, The Dayton Foundation and Harlem Children’s Zone, among others — to improve educational and economic outcomes for communities of color and reduce racial disparities. Harlem Children’s Zone’s support of the Northwest Dayton Partnership is the latest in our ongoing National Leadership efforts to scale our place-based model to help under-resourced communities across the country achieve success and self-sufficiency. Catalyzing Success Through our William Julius Wilson Institute, Harlem Children’s Zone is sharing best practices — backed by a generation of evidence that we can transform lives and communities through place-based interventions — to catalyze the partnership’s success. “We are looking for models around the country on how to effectively address the complexities of race, poverty, and education,” Harlem Children’s Zone founder and president Geoffrey Canada told Dayton Business Journal. “This partnership has the potential to serve as a model on how to address, and ultimately solve, these profound issues.” “Sustained, Systemic Solutions” The partnership aims to introduce “sustained, systemic solutions” for the northwest Dayton community, including: Taking a two-generation approach to building well-being by working with children and families Shifting power to deeply connected, primarily Black-led community organizations Building high-quality early childhood education for children from birth through age five Creating quality K-12 schools that close educational gaps Supporting community-based institutions’ racial and economic equity work Advocating for policy priorities developed with youth, families and community residents to impact education and economic mobility

LOCAL NEWS 2 NEWS By Lauren Mixon DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) – Learn to Earn Dayton, in collaboration with community stakeholders, gathered Thursday to announce its new program, the Northwest Dayton Partnership. Kristina Scott, CEO of the organization, described the program as, “a cross-sector, collaborative group of folks who are living and working in Northwest Dayton. Our goal is to catalyze work that’s happening here, so that every single child in northwest Dayton has the resources and relationships that they need to thrive.” The partnership will accomplish that goal by working with community members and organizations including the City of Dayton, Preschool Promise, Dayton Public Schools and countless others — using a two-generational approach to enhance the culture and well-being of the community. Chad Sloss, Dayton native and member of the steering committee for the Northwest Dayton Partnership board, said the program is a step toward community recovery. “[After] years and years, generations and generations of being structurally disenfranchised, it starts to cause a behavioral or cultural dilemma, which is what we have to start to overcome right now….to get students and their parents and the community to see the opportunities.” Learn to Earn staff said those educational opportunities will help ‘build economic and racial equity for northwest Dayton’s children and the adults in their lives,’ through a two-year, $8 million grant awarded by Blue Meridian Partners, and help give power back to residents and establishments in the city. “Our job is to create a community in which people have ownership of their own lives and to figure out how to take the plans the community has for itself, the dreams the community has for itself, and how can we turbocharge them so that the community can have generational change,” said Scott. Scott said Learn to Earn will be working with community partners to determine how to best invest that money over the next two years. To learn more about the Northwest Dayton Partnership, click here.

LOCAL NEWS WYSO By Chris Welter There is a new exhibit at the main branch of the Dayton Metro Library called Undesign the Redline. Redlining was a practice that started after the Great Depression in the 1930s. The federal government classified Black and immigrant communities as risky places to make home loans and that has lead to underinvestment in those areas ever since. This discriminatory lending practice happened in Ohio in many cities, including Dayton and Springfield. Kristina Scott is the CEO of the advocacy group Learn to Earn Dayton. The non-profit is one of the exhibit's sponsors. She said the effects of redlining are still felt in the Miami Valley today. “We need to dig into our history," Scott said. "It gives us some facts upon which we can base our conversations on how to close opportunity gaps and gives us a sense of the systems that have caused them.” The exhibit is interactive as well. At one installation, there are pins for visitors to place on a map where they live today. Certain areas that were considered "hazardous" in the 1930s are literally shaded in red, or redlined. The prime areas, like Oakwood, are shaded in green. There are also three local art installations currently on display at the library that complement the Undesign the Redline exhibit. Environmental reporter Chris Welter is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms.

LOCAL NEWS Dayton Daily News By Cornelius Frolik A major national player in charitable giving will contribute $8 million to support a new partnership focused on connecting assets and improving equity and educational and career outcomes in northwest Dayton. “This is really about how do we accelerate all the work that’s happening and the good things that are happening” in northwest Dayton, said Kristina Scott, CEO of Learn to Earn, which is one of the partners on this new effort. “And we want to build a solid foundation so it can last for a lifetime.” Blue Meridian Partners, a national charitable organization, will provide a multiyear grant to the new Northwest Dayton Partnership, which consists of neighborhood associations, community groups, Dayton Public Schools, Learn to Earn, Preschool Promise, Phoenix Next, the city of Dayton, the Dayton Foundation and others. Some grant funding will be distributed to deeply connected but historically under-resourced organizations in northwest Dayton to help build “civic infrastructure,” Scott said, while some money will be used to bring best practices and technical assistance to the area. Using community input, the partnership will identify impactful programs, projects and collaborations between stakeholders, Scott said. The goal is to fund two-generation, neighborhood-based supports that result in racial and economic equity, like investments in early childhood education, quality K-12 schools and wraparound services for the kids and their families, Scott said. “In some ways, we are the pipe-fitters, making sure that systems work together and so there are hand-offs between pre-K to K-12, from high school to college,” she said. “But we’re also making sure that we have the supports in place for the community to keep working together.” The partnership wants to strengthen and expand the capacity of organizations that are doing important work, such as Black-led, community-based nonprofits, supporters said. A variety of plans focused on northwest Dayton have been developed, but these plans and their recommended action items need coordination to get the best results, officials said. Blue Meridian Partners is a philanthropic organization that invests in communities around the country with place-based partnerships that improve economic and social mobility, said Jim Shelton, chief investment and impact officer with the group. The Northwest Dayton Partnership will develop a sustainable plan for improving opportunities through comprehensive and generational work, he said. Blue Meridian has invested about $95 million into place-based partnerships in about a dozen U.S. communities, including Louisville, Kentucky; Oakland, California; Memphis, Tennessee; Salt Lake City; and Dallas. Dayton was awarded grant funding because of the impressive work local stakeholders have done to invest in their community and work together on shared plans aimed at creating pathways to success for kids living in poverty, Shelton said. He also noted that Geoffrey Canada, founder of the Harlem Children’s Zone, is sharing best practices and providing technical assistance and other kinds of support to Dayton and other grant recipients. Northwest Dayton has seen millions of dollars of new investment, including the Gem City Market on Salem Avenue and the new Northwest Dayton Library on Philadelphia Drive. Omega Community Development Corp. broke ground last year on the $11.1 million Hope Center for Families project, which is expected to open this fall. The center is being built on the former United Theological Seminary campus on the 1800 block of Harvard Boulevard. The organization is expected to be one of the participants in the Northwest Dayton Partnership. The Omega Senior Lofts, a 81-unit senior housing development on the 1400 block of Cornell Drive, is open and fully leased, said Vanessa Ward, president of Omega CDC. “I stand here in awe of what can happen when people work together with a purpose and a vision to make a difference in the community,” she said. The Hope Center seeks to reduce poverty in northwest Dayton, which is home to more than 30,000 residents. The center has partnered with Dayton Children’s Hospital to offer pediatric care and Sinclair Community College to offer adult educational services, Ward said. This grant is a “once-in-a-lifetime gift to align and leverage resources to make a difference in the lives of kids and families in northwest Dayton,” said Mike Parks, president of the Dayton Foundation, which will serve as the fiscal agent for the partnership.

Ohio Capital Journal By Susan Tebben The removal of the Step Up to Quality child care standards system as proposed in the Ohio Senate’s version of the budget was not only against the wishes of some child care leaders, but also came without any warning. “It was calculated,” said Dawn Blalock, co-owner of the Little Miracles Early Development Center. “It was a motive and they did it in a way to blindside everyone.” Blalock said she had talked with legislators about the new budget plan recently, and eliminating Step Up to Quality was “not on the table.” Step Up to Quality is a quality rating system administered by the Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, which seeks to maintain program standards that lead to kindergarten readiness. They also incentivize child care facilities to keep up their standards in order to receive state support. The standards include a minimum amount of time that lead teachers interact with children, the skills that teachers and employees have in the facilities and curriculum standards. Participants in a virtual call hosted by early learning advocacy group Groundwork Ohio said removing these standards could lead to drastic reductions in child care quality and a lack of focus on the future workforce in the state. “If a provider is unable to get to a star rating, then I would say they shouldn’t serve state-funded children,” said Robyn Lightcap, executive director for the non-profit Dayton-Montgomery County Preschool Promise, and also serves on the Governor’s Early Childhood Advisory Council. Business owners joined the call to promote the inclusion of Step Up to Quality in the state budget. Jane Grote Abell, chair of the board for Donatos Pizza said her employees “can not and will not come to work” without quality child care for their children. Kevin McDonnell, CEO of Skyline Chili said child care is a “two-generation workforce issue” with access to child care crucial to helping parents care for their children, and children build the pathway for their own careers. “As a business, we certainly depend on a trained and effective workforce to compete and succeed, but our education system can fall short in helping students succeed in business and in life,” McDonnell said. At a press conference presenting the Senate’s version of the state budget, which also includes a revised overhaul of the public school funding formula and a 5% income tax cut, Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said Step Up to Quality “has put low-income daycare providers out of business.” Andrea Stout, director of the Learning Tree Child Care Center in Allen County, which is connected to an area church, also spoke during the budget presentation, saying her center chose not to participate in the quality program because of the cost and the paperwork involved. “We just are not willing to jump through the hoops, and increase the unnecessary spending to be ruled by fear of losing the ability to serve our low-income families,” Stout said. “We want to serve all of our community, and we do not want to do that by increasing the (cost for) private-paying parents.” Blalock disputed the idea that the paperwork was prohibitive, and many of the advocates on the Groundwork Ohio call said they don’t see Step Up To Quality as a barrier to access. “There’s no reason we should be eliminating an entire system because we need to improve some efficience in the paperwork,” Lightcap said. Katie Kelly, executive director of Pre4Cle, a Cleveland-area strategy to strengthen programs for kindergarten readiness spoke with education officials earlier this week on the Senate plan, calling the removal of Step Up For Quality “short sighted and extremely harmful to Ohio’s early learning.” “These are fundamentals that all effective early childhood programs need,” Kelly said. “The Senate version (of the budget) would move us backward.” About 4,600 messages have been sent to state policymakers expressing “outrage” over the system’s removal in the proposed budget, according to Lynanne Gutierrez, of Groundwork Ohio.

The Columbus Dispatch By Anna Staver Dawn Blalock didn't want to switch to Ohio's five-star rating system for child care facilities at first. She'd been the program manager at Little Miracles Early Development Center in Columbus for nearly a decade and felt proud of the work she'd done. Now, the state was saying she had to change things and file all this paperwork to earn a single star. "We were really reluctant because we didn't understand it," Blalock said. Still, she got on board because the Step-Up to Quality star system passed in 2012 would become mandatory by 2020 for any facility that accepted kids in the Publicly Funded Child Care program. And all of Blalock's kids were getting that state aid. "Once we started doing the steps, it changed the whole framing structure of how we operate as a company," she said. "We do regular assessments. We do developmental screenings. We hire lead teachers who have associate's or bachelor's degrees." Basically, she thinks Step-Up to Quality helped prepare her kids for kindergarten. That's important because 28% of all economically disadvantaged children in Franklin County passed their kindergarten readiness tests in 2018, according to the Ohio Early Childhood Race and Rural Equity Report. Conversely, 60% of kids from higher-income homes passed those exams. The program is a winner in Blalock's eyes, but it's a problem in the mind of Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima. He thinks all the hoops star-rated places have to jump through exacerbate Ohio's child care shortage and push quality providers away. He thinks the payment increases Step-Up gives for every new star could present a $1 billion budget problem over the next decade. And Huffman thinks the ratings don't influence the way most parents shop for child care. So, he dropped a legal change in the Senate version of Ohio's two-year budget that would remove the star mandate. Facilities would still get paid extra for earning stars, but those without them could accept public assistance kids. Ohio facing child care crisis Finding child care that could take your kid was hard before the pandemic. Now, it's reached what experts describe as a full-blown crisis. "We have 2,000 jobs available within a ten-mile radius of Lima," said Joe Patton, the director of Allen County's job and family services office. "The problem is there is limited child care availability right now." He's telling parents with multiple kids that they need to drive to three separate facilities if they want slots for their three children. Part of that is the pandemic, but Patton is convinced the other part is Step-Up to Quality. In September it became mandatory for providers accepting state dollars to have at least one star. By 2025, they will need three stars. And he's seen dozens of providers walk away. "We had 60 eligible providers in 2012," Patton said. "Now we are down to 17." It's the mom-and-pop facilities that are disappearing, he said. The in-home places for 20 or 30 years by someone (usually a woman of color) who lacks a formal early childhood education degree. Or the church preschool staffed by a small army of volunteers. "These women will tell you, 'My kids know how to read better than the kids in Lima City Schools,'" Huffman said. But they can't afford the degrees and/or they don't have time for the paperwork. That's the decision Andrea Stout reached. She runs a preschool and child care center called Learning Tree in Lima. Her church congregation raised money for a few scholarships, but the rest of their public assistance kids were turned away. Rising costs for Ohio's Step-Up to Quality program The other problem Huffman sees with the Step-Up to Quality program is its rising costs. His staff estimated that the total cost of the Publicly Funded Child Care program will increase by 80% from 2021 to 2025 – leaving Ohio on the hook for $641.8 million more than it's paying today by 2024. It's possible the federal government will cover part of those costs, but Huffman said the state shouldn't pin its financial plans on that hope. He couldn't estimate how much Ohio would save by making the stars optional again. That depends on how many non-participating centers get approved to take kids. Senators will debate the child care provision and others in the coming weeks and will likely make more changes before the June 30 deadline to pass a budget. Concerns that changes would sacrifice quality education Increasing access to child care is great, said Shannon Jones, a former Republican state senator who runs Groundwork Ohio. But what is the point if you have to sacrifice quality? A recent analysis by the University of Cincinnati Economics Center found that quality child care and early education increased high school graduation rates while reducing the need for public assistance, criminal justice and other social services. "The cost savings of reduced involvement in the criminal justice system alone pays for the cost of expanding access to quality child care more than 2.5 times over," according to Groundwork's interpretation of the report. If paperwork is the problem, we should find a way to fix that, said Joy Bivens, the director for Franklin County Job and Family Services. If it's a money problem for centers, we should help them pay for the upgrades. That's what her county commissioners did. They invested $4 million to help child care facilities across the county earn their stars. "It’s hard for me not to look at this as a racial equity issue," Bivens said. "Seventy-three percent of our African American children were not ready for kindergarten ... We are hurting families if we say this is no longer necessary." And that's the thing that's been keeping Blalock up at night. She grew up in Columbus' Hilltop neighborhood and knows what it's like to feel like the deck is stacked against you. She understands why parents sit in her parking lot while their kids eat dinner. "We're breaking generational barriers. We're setting these children up to become financially secure and stable working adults," Blalock said. "Please don't devalue those lives." Anna Staver is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.