Author Archives: timbartik

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About timbartik

Tim Bartik is a senior economist at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, a non-profit and non-partisan research organization in Kalamazoo, Michigan. His research specializes in state and local economic development policies and local labor markets.

Big cuts in early childhood programs in North Carolina

Last week, the North Carolina legislature overrode Governor Bev Perdue’s veto and approved a budget that cuts the state’s two major early childhood programs by 20 percent.  These cuts are to the state’s “More at Four” preschool program for at-risk … Continue reading

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How difficult is “high-quality” preschool?

Well-known blogger Matt Yglesias had a post on preschool recently. In this post, Yglesias argued that implementing preschool programs at a large scale, at high-quality, is difficult.  Yglesias’s argument is overstated. The research suggests that most states and local governments … Continue reading

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Request for questions

I will be out of town until Tuesday June 21st. I may do some posts in that time period, as time permits. However, I don’t expect to resume daily posting until June 22nd. In the interim, please suggest to me … Continue reading

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Tennessee’s pre-K program

A recent report on Tennessee’s state-funded pre-k program has led to some controversy over the program’s effects. The report’s authors, Strategic Research Group, concluded that “the results provide evidence that the objective of Tennessee’s Pre-K program – school readiness is … Continue reading

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Top five facts to support local government investment in early childhood programs

I recently responded to an information request from one early childhood program advocate. This advocate is trying to persuade a local county government to invest funds in early childhood programs. The request was for the “top 5 facts” that might … Continue reading

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Continued high unemployment and early childhood programs, part II

As indicated in a previous post, the U.S. is likely to have continued high unemployment for many years. One way that early childhood programs may help in this situation is by helping to offset some of the negative effects of … Continue reading

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Continued high unemployment and early childhood programs, Part I

Last Friday’s monthly labor market report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics yielded disappointing news. The unemployment rate ticked up from 9.0% to 9.1%. Job growth was only 54,000 jobs. This is less than the approximately 125,000 job growth … Continue reading

Posted in Early childhood programs, Economic development | 1 Comment

Jean Jennings Bartik Memorial Service

I will not be posting for a few days because I will be traveling to and from my mother’s memorial service. I posted a little bit about her in a previous blog post shortly after her death on March 23rd. … Continue reading

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What works in job creation and economic development

Yesterday, I gave the keynote address to a conference organized by the National Employment Law Project (NELP). The NELP conference focused on grassroots ideas for creating jobs and economic opportunities in local communities. My keynote address was entitled “What Works … Continue reading

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Teacher pay in early childhood education

Some readers have brought to my attention a recent study of how typical annual earnings vary with college major. This study, by Anthony Carnevale, Jeff Strohl, and Michelle Melton at Georgetown University, relies on 2009 data from the American Community … Continue reading

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