The New York Times By Dana Goldstein March 31, 2024 Watch These Cute Videos of Babies (and Learn Something, Too) SZCF's own Dan Wuori was interviewed and profiled in the New York Times for his incredible work in ECE and for his unique and influential Twitter/X presence. ...
March 7, 2024 The Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation is please to announce Ellen Galinsky's new book, The Breakthrough Years, out on March 26th. The book provides a paradigm-shifting, yet practical, understanding of adolescence. Click the image above to pre-order/order your copy!...
The New York Times By Nikolas Kristof February 4, 2024 An early child care program modeled after the one that exists in the U.S. military. If our armed forces can operate a child care program with fees based on ability to pay, then the rest of the country can as well. A government-supported early childhood program rescues parents and kids alike. Roughly one child in six is living with a parent who misused drugs in the last year, and some of these children...
Berkeley Film Foundation Media Contact: Andrew Neilly, Nancy Amaral BERKELEY, Calif., January 18, 2024– The Berkeley FILM Foundation (BFF) has received a $1.5 million grant from the Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation (SZCF). The funding over a three-year period will augment BFF’s current grant program to fund local independent film projects, establishes new educational programs focused on filmmaking, and inaugurates the first annual Saul Zaentz Film Festival to be held September 14-15 at the Smith Rafael Film Center in partnership with the California...
Early Learning Nation By Mark Swartz December 19, 2023 Imagine you work for an advocacy organization in one state and you want to find out how other states are raising revenue to support early education and care. If you Google child care tax revenue or daycare tax payments, almost all the results pertain to the tax credits that individuals can apply for when they file their taxes. Refining your search terms might give you better results, but it might take hours to track...
Stanford University By Vincent Ingram December 7, 2023 A generous gift to the Stanford Center on Early Childhood will advance the center’s work in early childhood and accelerate the exchange of expertise among researchers, policymakers, and front-line practitioners. The Saul Zaentz Charitable Foundation is providing funding to expand a valuable large-scale data collection tool called the RAPID Survey, which tracks the experiences of young children, their families, and caregivers and is used by practitioners, government systems, and other stakeholders to address critical challenges for...
Cision PR Newswire Provided by the Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative August 22, 2023 The Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education today launched the Zaentz Navigator, an innovative, user-friendly, and interactive digital tool to help policymakers and leaders learn how cities and states across the country are working to structure, finance, expand, and advance early education and care. The Navigator is appearing at a time when it is needed most. Record spending on early education as part of...
EdSurge By Emily Tate Sullivan June 27, 2023 In late April, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis sat down at his desk to make some phone calls. The governor, on this day, was calling to deliver good news. He wanted to personally congratulate some of the 22,087 families who had matched with their first-choice provider for Colorado’s free, universal preschool program, which launches this fall. A parent named Katie, in Summit County, was among those who received a call from the governor. “Oh, thank you so much....
CBS Bay Area By Kenny Choi June 23, 2023 SAN FRANCISCO – There's a tug of war in San Francisco between Mayor London Breed's office and early education advocates over a voter-approved business tax and proposed budget cuts. For more than 30 years Andy Reed has been guiding children to see the world from different perspectives, make good decisions, and lay a solid foundation for their education. "It's always fresh. It's always a new discovery no matter how many years we've done it," said...
CBS Colorado June 21, 2023 More than 2,700 families have accepted matches in the first two rounds of Colorado's Universal Preschool program. That's according to the Department of Early Childhood. Ninety percent of children were matched to their chosen providers. Children who are a year out from kindergarten are eligible for free preschool for up to 15 hours a week or about five half days. Families can go online, enter their information, and find providers either home-based, center-based, or school-based, and pick...
Early Learning Nation By Mark Swartz June 8, 2023 In 1999, addressing AmeriCorps members on the program’s fifth anniversary, President Bill Clinton said, “There is no question that you are now an indispensable force for change in America.” The same year, when Kristi Givens went into the child care profession, she didn’t know she would someday cross paths with the national service program. The proprietor of three child care centers in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward, Givens is cofounder with Rochelle Wilcox—a child care...
Cision PR Newswire News Provided By The Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative May 1, 2023 BOSTON, May 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education has announced the winners of its 2023 Zaentz Early Education Innovation Challenge. Now in its fourth year, the Challenge recognizes promising new ideas and strategic approaches that have the potential to transform early education. On April 27, 2023, 11 finalists pitched their ideas to a panel of judges and a...
We Are The Mighty By Joel Searls February 7, 2023 Saul Zaentz started out in the music industry post his service in the Army during World War II. He worked with the Jazz at the Philharmonic which included him managing tours for such musicians as Duke Ellington and Stan Getz. He joined Fantasy Records in the mid-1950s and stayed there through the 1960s having discovered Creedence Clearwater Revival. Although CCR and Zaentz didn’t end on the best terms they did find a lot...
By Dana Suskind November 18, 2022 Compared with other wealthy nations, the United States is a uniquely difficult place to raise children. One in four mothers returns to work within two weeks of giving birth, and we’re the only rich country that doesn’t have federally mandated paid leave for new parents. While other wealthy countries invest an average of $14,000 a year for every toddler’s care, America spends $500. The pandemic sharpened our awareness of these problems—parents left the workforce in droves, child-care...
November 10, 2022 Alliance for Early Success allies across the country are sharing election results that impact children and families. We’ve compiled their summaries in an initial overview of where the country stands two days after the election. While we don’t yet know the extent of the changes we’ll see on the national level, there is lots to report on state political landscapes — where the bulk of early childhood policy rises and falls....
New America By Lydia Mackie Oct. 27, 2022 Tiny monarch caterpillars arrived at the school, not floating through the air, but with the thud of a package on concrete. Our postal carrier had no idea how many lessons were going to emerge from that box for the prekindergartners at our public school in Washington, DC. First, we created a mesh net habitat and placed it in the tiny side yard of our concrete school building, which is just a few feet from a busy...
The Reform Alliance Oct. 18, 2022 The Reform Alliance says Focusing on education dialogue with students and families, not buildings, is step in right direction. Little Rock, AR – The Reform Alliance is encouraged to see the unveiling of Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ education agenda. Her plan, Arkansas LEARNS, is a step in the right direction – focusing the education dialogue on students and families, not buildings. “With third-grade reading levels at an abysmal 35 percent statewide, it is comforting to know that if she is...
SZCF's President Elliot Steinberg attended and spoke at The Hunt Institute's bipartisan Early Childhood Leadership Summit in Phoenix, AZ., along with Dr. Dana Suskind, author of Parent Nation, who was introduced by Steinberg as the event's keynote speaker. The event brought together 52 state teams, including Puerto Rico and Washington DC, comprised of senior elected officials, gubernatorial staff, and key early childhood system leaders....
By Alyssa Haywoode | Eye on Early Education August 9, 2022 The Vital Role of Play in Early Childhood — and How to Explain this to More Adults Play is important for children. However, what’s missing from this important idea, a new report says, is a clear understanding of how play can be an effective learning strategy in early childhood settings – and how best to share this concept with the public. The report – “The Role of Play in Designing Effective Early Learning Environments and...
By Peter Bart | Deadline July 14, 2022 Where do great movies come from? When Netflix started creating its own shows a decade ago, Ted Sarandos and his colleagues put that question to select creatives around town. It was a smart exercise – but most respondents insisted there was no answer. Coincidentally I’d been putting out that question at various times over the years with equally ambiguous results. Saul Zaentz, the feisty film and music producer, once offered this response: “Great movies come...