President Joe Biden will lay out the contours of his latest ambitious legislative proposal — his “American Families Plan” — in his address Wednesday night to a joint session of Congress, calling on lawmakers to pass what the White House is calling “a once-in-a-generation investment in our nation’s future.”

Pennsylvania would need to increase its spending on preschool by $250 million per year to assure all eligible children have access to a high quality program, according to the annual report by the National Institute of Early Education Research.

It’s no secret this year has been challenging for education. State senators talked about how to make things better for Pennsylvania kids for generations to come on Monday. They covered everything from better online learning to getting more help to the neediest families.

For much of 2020, COVID-19 forced many people to remain at home, quarantined and isolated, to keep the disease from spreading. Between late February and mid-March of 2020, hotline tips to ChildLine, Pennsylvania’s 24-hour hotline, fell from 17,693 calls to 9,068, according to data provided by the state Department of Human Services.

A year ago, Sandy Bailey was looking forward to getting some financial relief. The Allentown mother of two young children was ready to see her oldest start first grade in the 2020-2021 school year. It would mean lower child care bills, some welcome money for the single mom. The COVID-19 pandemic not only took that […]