By Steve Crane | Editor-in-chief
"Come in. Spend a day with us. Come and see what it’s like to work with 20 rambunctious 3-year-olds that are coming into their own personalities. We want people to respect early learning educators. It’s a worthy career, and it’s important to the success of our children, but also really our society in the long run." – Angela Kidane, CEO of the KidzStuff Child Care Center in Baltimore, on the challenges and rewards of early childcare.
If you want to know what's really going on, ask the people who are in the thick of the fight you're fighting. It works in areas as disparate and childcare, as you'll see below.
A national legislators' group released a report last month that contains a range of recommendations for situations across the country. They had the benefit of insight from De. Aletheia McCaskill (D-Baltimore County), writes William J. Ford, who visited a Baltimore daycare center during his reporting.
Data centers have suddenly become a hot topic for local governments, which may explain their presence on the agenda for the first day of the Maryland Association of Counties annual convention Wednesday. But visitors to Wednesday's session got to hear tips from someone who's been on the front lines in the data center fight, Michael Turner, a county supervisor in Loudoun County, which has some of the highest concentrations of data centers in the world. Christine Condon has that story.
We also have the second day of a statewide poll, looking at the governor's race from Bryan P. Sears, more headlines and commentary for you below. Enjoy!
Preschool children participate in the "stick song" Friday at KidzStuff Child Care Center in Baltimore. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)
By William J. Ford
States need to streamline sometimes cumbersome requirements for childcare providers, in addition to improving access and affordability and investing in childcare workers to strengthen the system for the future, according to a recent national report.
The 40-page report by a 13-member committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures -- including Del. Aletheia McCaskill (D-Baltimore County), who has been a child care provider for more than 25 years -- said that no one solution will work across the country, but that "incremental fixes alone are unlikely to address its underlying challenges."
That sounds about right to Angela Kidane. Kidane, who is CEO of KidzStuff Child Care Center in the Baltimore area, said that besides more funding for operational expenses and teacher salaries, state lawmakers must make some policy changes to improve the industry that she emphasized “is not a babysitting service.”
Along with a recommendation to modernize licensing and quality rating systems, the report lists six other areas as a legislative framework for state legislatures to utilize: Expand access and availability; address affordability for families; invest in the childcare workforce; strengthen small childcare businesses; fund childcare for the future; and elevate state governance and leadership.
Loudoun County, Va., Supervisor Michael Turner speaks about guardrails for data center projects during a panel at the Maryland Association of Counties summer conference Wednesday. Loudoun is home to one of the largest concentrations of data centers in the world, with more than 250 in the county. (Photo by Christine Condon/Maryland Matters)
By Christine Condon
Michael Turner, a county supervisor in Loudoun County, Virginia, estimates that the public perception of hyperscale data centers has shifted considerably in the last six to nine months — and he isn’t sure why.
Turner, a government official in the county with one of the world’s highest concentrations of data centers with over 250, said constituents calling to ask about them used to be pacified when they learned that their real property taxes were 25% lower than any other region in the Washington D.C. metro area. But no longer.
“The answer now is: ‘I don't care. Raise my taxes. Don't build any more data centers,’” Turner told a packed room at the Ocean City Convention Center on Wednesday, the opening day of the Maryland Association of Counties summer conference, where artificial intelligence and data centers are a hot-button issue. Still, Turner said he disagrees with counties taking the step to ban data centers altogether, in response to an angry constituency.
As Maryland counties grapple with their response to data centers, from bans to moratoriums to cooperation, Turner was on hand at the Maryland Association of Counties conference in Ocean City to provide some perspective from the front lines.
IN OTHER NEWS
Moore has early, strong lead in poll: Gov. Wes Moore leads his GOP challenger Dan Cox by 27 points in the early going of their gubernatorial rematch, according to a new poll that also shows a mixed bag for quality of life.
Transgender teen funding targeted: A new federal rule will end Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming hormone therapies and procedures for kids under age 18, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said Tuesday.
Liquor, guns, taxes in Prince George: Dozens of Prince George's County liquor store and gun shop owners are taking the county to court, arguing that the $5,000 "use and occupancy fee" levied on them is really just another tax.
TODAY'S COMMENTARY
There were 143 deaths in Maryland police encounters from 2015 to 2023, many of them people calling for help, writes Sonia Kumar, but afterward no one's asking the right question: Not why it happened but could it have been prevented?
MATTERS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED
Howard detention center back on track: Howard County residents vowed to fight a federal immigration facility planned for an Elkridge office building, after a federal judge ordered the county could no longer block work on the project..
'Enough is enough': Consumer advocates, environmental groups and labor unions rallied against the latest rate hike proposal from Baltimore Gas & Electric, calling it unjustified after the company's record-setting $578 million earnings.e
Taxes? Maybe but not on me: A majority of Marylanders favor raising taxes on wealthy households over other options, including legalizing internet gaming or making changes to the state sales tax, according to a poll released Tuesday.
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