A Black Lives Matter protest more accessible to those in the disabled community is being organized for next Friday in Portsmouth.
A 2018 Center for American Progress analysis found that more than half of Americans live in a childcare desert. And now add a pandemic that has stretched almost two years to the scarcity of spaces and ever-rising cost, and the stress for both child care providers and those looking for a facility has increased exponentially.
During a year when many New Hampshire families are struggling to find childcare solutions that allow parents to work while students learn remotely, the school wanted to ensure that its 510 employees wouldn’t have to choose between working and supervising their own kids, said Timothy J. Powers, headmaster of Pinkerton Academy. The independent school has contracts with six towns — Auburn, Candia, Chester, Hampstead, Hooksett and Derry — to provide education to their high schoolers. The program, called Junior Astro Scholars, allows students enrolled in remote learning to come to work with their parents. The kids complete their assignments in a spare space at Pinkerton Academy, helped by a certified educator who was already employed by the school. The program is free for staff.
The dynamics of two-parent households have shifted dramatically in the last 20 to 30 years, with men and women contributing income more equally, says Beth Humberd, an assistant professor and expert in gender and the workplace at UMass Lowell's Manning School of Business. Then the pandemic hit. Support structures like daycares, summer camps and afterschool programs collapsed, potentially dissolving the strides women made.
