#pre-unit

[reasonsforhope]

"The state, which has long ranked worst in the US for child wellbeing, became the first and only in the country to offer free childcare to a majority of families

There was a moment, just before the pandemic, when Lisset Sanchez thought she might have to drop out of college because the cost of keeping her three children in daycare was just too much.

Even with support from the state, she and her husband were paying $800 a month – about half of what Sanchez and her husband paid for their mortgage in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

But during the pandemic, that cost went down to $0. And Sanchez was not only able to finish college, but enroll in nursing school. With a scholarship that covered her tuition and free childcare, Sanchez could afford to commute to school, buy groceries for her growing family – even after she had two more children – and pay down the family’s mortgage and car loan.

“We are a one-income household,” said Sanchez, whose husband works while she is in school. Having free childcare “did help tremendously”.

...Three years ago, New Mexico became the first state in the nation to offer free childcare to a majority of families. The United States has no federal, universal childcare – and ranks 40th on a Unicef ranking of 41 high-income countries’ childcare policies, while maintaining some of the highest childcare costs in the world. Expanding on pandemic-era assistance, New Mexico made childcare free for families earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level, or about $124,000 for a family of four. That meant about half of New Mexican children now qualified.

In one of the poorest states in the nation, where the median household income is half that and childcare costs for two children could take up 80% of a family’s income, the impact was powerful. The state, which had long ranked worst in the nation for child wellbeing, saw its poverty rate begin to fall.

As the state simultaneously raised wages for childcare workers, and became the first to base its subsidy reimbursement rates on the actual cost of providing such care, early childhood educators were also raised out of poverty. In 2020, 27.4% of childcare providers – often women of color – were living in poverty. By 2024, that number had fallen to 16%.

During the state’s recent legislative session, lawmakers approved a “historic” increase in funding for education, including early childhood education, that might improve those numbers even further...

When now-governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced her candidacy in late 2016, she emphasized her desire to address the state’s low child wellbeing rating. And when she took office in January 2018, she described her aim to have a “moonshot for education”: major investments in education across the state, from early childhood through college.

That led to her opening the state’s early childhood education and care department in 2019 – and tapping Groginksy, who had overseen efforts to improve early childhood policies in Washington DC, to run it. Then, in 2020, Lujan Grisham threw her support behind a bill in the state legislature that would establish an Early Childhood Trust Fund: by investing $300m – plus budget surpluses each year, largely from oil and gas revenue – the state hoped to distribute a percentage to fund early childhood education each year.

But then, just weeks after the trust fund was established, the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic.

“Covid created a really enormous moment for childcare,” said Heinz. “We had somewhat of a national reckoning about the fact that we don’t have a workforce if we don’t have childcare.”

As federal funding flooded into New Mexico, the state directed millions of dollars toward childcare, including by boosting pay for entry-level childcare providers to $15 an hour, expanding eligibility for free childcare to families making 400% of the poverty level, and becoming the first state in the nation to set childcare subsidy rates at the true cost of delivering care.

As pandemic-era relief funding dried up in 2022, the governor and Democratic lawmakers proposed another way to generate funds for childcare – directing a portion of the state’s Land Grant Permanent Fund to early childhood education and care. Like the Early Childhood Trust Fund, the permanent fund – which was established when New Mexico became a state – was funded by taxes on fossil fuel revenues. That November, 70% of New Mexican voters approved a constitutional amendment directing 1.25% of the fund to early childhood programs.

By then, the Early Childhood Trust Fund had grown exponentially – due to the boom in oil and gas prices. Beginning with $300m in 2020, the fund had swollen to over $9bn by the end of 2024...

New Mexico has long had one of the highest “official poverty rates” in the nation.

But using a metric that accounts for social safety net programs – like universal childcare – that’s slowly shifting. According to “supplemental poverty” data, 17.1% of New Mexicans fell below the federal “supplemental” poverty line from 2013 to 2015 (a metric that takes into account cost of living and social supports) – making it the fifth poorest state in the nation by that measure. But today, that number has fallen to 10.9%, one of the biggest changes in the country, amounting to 120,000 fewer New Mexicans living in poverty.

New Mexico’s child wellbeing ranking – which is based heavily on “official poverty” rankings – probably won’t budge, says Heinz because “the amount of money coming into households, that they have to run their budget, remains very low.

“However, the thing New Mexico has done that’s fairly tremendous, I think, is around families not having to have as much money going out,” she said.

During the recent legislative session, lawmakers deepened their investments in early childhood education even further, approving a 21.6% increase of $170m for education programs – including early childhood education. However, other legislation that advocates had hoped might pass stalled in the legislature, including a bill to require businesses to offer paid family medical leave...

In her budget recommendations, Lujan Grisham asked the state to up its commitment to early childhood policies, by raising the wage floor for childcare workers to $18 an hour and establishing a career lattice for them. Because of that, Gonzalez has been able to start working on her associate’s in childhood education at Central New Mexico Community College where her tuition is waived. The governor also backed a house bill that will increase the amount of money distributed annually from the Early Childhood Trust Fund – since its dramatic growth due to oil and gas revenues.

Although funding childcare through the Land Grant Permanent Fund is unique to New Mexico – and a handful of other states with permanent funds, like Alaska, Texas and North Dakota – Heinz says the Early Childhood Trust fund “holds interesting lessons for other states” about investing a percentage of revenues into early childhood programs.

In New Mexico, those revenues come largely from oil and gas, but New Mexico Voices for Children has put forth recommendations about how the state can continue funding childcare while transitioning away from fossil fuels, largely by raising taxes on the state’s wealthiest earners. Although other states have not yet followed in New Mexico’s footsteps, a growing number are making strides to offer free pre-K to a majority of their residents.

Heinz cautions that change won’t occur overnight. “What New Mexico is trying to do here is play a very long game. And so I am not without worry that people might give it five years, and it’s been almost five years now, and then say, where are the results? Why is everything not better?” she said. “This is generational change” that New Mexico is only just beginning to witness as the first children who were recipients of universal childcare start school."

-via The Guardian, April 11, 2025

[nicktoons-unite-incorrect-quotes]

Timmy: So, you're bisexual?

Manny: Yup!

Timmy: And yet you're STILL single?

Manny:

Timmy: Dude, you're not bisexual, you're bi-yourself

[carbone14]

Northrop A-17A (S/N 36-218) en vol

©National Museum of the United States Air Force - 051116-F-1234P-112

[masons-tours]

Mason and Jorge

Source: ESPN TikTok

[c1trvswurld]

DENY DEFEND DEPOSE WERE WRITEN ON THE SHELL CASINGS??????

[hyunpic]

i always cry at some point when i see hyunjin live, could be right before the concert, in the middle of it or after but now i have been crying just by the thought of it. so now that im pre crying this early on, maybe i won’t cry when the concert is actually happening 🤥

[the-spirit-of-yore]

God Speed, Edmund Leighton, 1900, Great-Britain, Private Collection in United States

[realbeefman]

say what you will about svu and copaganda but the consistently repeated theme that olivia benson was fundamentally born Wrong and the way the violence of her conception radiates out and impacts every single relationship she has. she cannot conceive of an existence that does not render her as an agent of justice rather than a complex person and it infects her interactions with anyone who is able to balance that responsibility. the way law & order manages to successfully recast the police as superhero-esque christ figures is genuinely incredible and like. even the way the show itself oscillates as to what her exact fate is episode to episode. does it get better? worse? can she ever prove herself worthy? is the past ever really past? is this thing she’s been justly burdened with her burden to carry at all? in the eyes of the Law. Our Father who art in heaven. i wash my hands of this.

[waywardstation]

A long, long time ago I got asked about Akari’s pokemon team. I had answered it, but since then I’ve changed a lot of the Pokémon on her team, and wanted to make a proper post for it ^^

@tjs-stuffs has put in lots of thought and meaning into their own pokemon teams for their AUs, as well as analyze NPCs’ pokemon teams to see what it says about their trainers, and I thought that was really cool so I wanted to try that too when reconstructing Akari’s team!

long analyzation about each member below!

—————

EMBER ♀ | LVL 48 QUILAVA

HARDY NATURE

Akari’s starter Pokémon. I thought a fire-type would work well with an outgoing personality, and it would be a useful starter to have in the wild — makes camping easier with usefulness in cooking and staying warm.

And with Hisuian Typhlosion’s entries saying it’s speculated to guide lost souls, I believe it’s especially fitting for Akari since she was put there to really help out a very lost Jubilife Village and show them Pokémon aren’t creatures to be afraid of. And in my stories especially, I frequently stress that Akari is “guiding” Ingo out of this lost, empty state and will eventually be the reason why he gets back home.

—————

KITE ♂ | LVL 36 DRIFLOON

IMPISH NATURE

Akari caught this Pokémon out in the fieldlands while doing her initial trial for Cyllene.

Lots of drifloon and drifblim’s entries talk about the Pokémon’s relation to lost people, more frequently children. And how with those who go missing, no one knows where they went. Sometimes also relates to lost souls. Akari is certainly a ���lost soul” who was plucked suddenly from her time, and no one knows what happened to her or where she went.

—————

JELLY ♀ | LVL 41 MANTYKE

JOLLY NATURE

Akari caught this Pokémon in the coastlands when she saw she couldn’t avoid swimming anymore, and needed help as someone who couldn’t swim.

Mantyke is one of the very few pokemon (if not the only one, IIRC) who evolves through a symbiotic relationship with another Pokémon, remoraid. I thought it would attribute well to Akari, since so much of what she’s doing in Hisui is based on symbiotic relationships.

She is doing what Arceus asked of her, and in return Arceus assists her where it can. She stays in Jubilife Village, but only if she does hard work and is helpful to Kamado and the Galaxy Team in return.

And in my fics especially, her and Ingo have a symbiotic relationship, both helping the other out in many ways (that are emotionally healthier and less forced than what she’s got with Arceus and the Galaxy Team).

—————

TRINKET ♀ | LVL 39 CHINGLING

CAREFUL NATURE

Akari caught this Pokémon in the highlands when she spotted its unusual and pretty colors.

Chingling are said to be based off Suzu bells, which can be used for Shinto Shrines — worshipping places for various deities, and were around in Japan during the Meiji Era.

As someone doing what was asked of them by Arceus, a diety that is greatly respected and revered in the region (although they’re largely unknown to be what everyone calls Almighty Sinnoh until the end of the story), I thought it would be a good fit for Akari.

—————

FREIGHT ♂ | LVL 40 SHIELDON

BRAVE NATURE

Akari caught this Pokémon within a space-time distortion in the highlands. She asked Ingo to help her name this one.

Shieldon and Bastiodon are described to be very strong Pókemon, yet they prefer avoiding conflict — they’re also impenetrable with their hard heads, but are weak to attacks from behind. And as ancient Pokémon from the past, the ones that show up in Hisui are obviously displaced.

I think a lot of these fit Akari well. She’s also very formidable in battle but isn’t really someone who often goes looking for fights (in the aggressive sense, at least). The sturdy face but weaker backside also seems to fit how I write Akari; she puts on a tough “I’m fine” front a lot, even if she’s not, and is sometimes reluctant to share her struggles. And finally, the most obvious — she’s just as displaced as these fossil Pokémon.

—————

POM-POM ♂ | LVL 45 RUFFLET

LONELY NATURE

Akari caught this Pokémon in the icelands (specifically during the events of HFBE, she finds it without its parents).

Many of Rufflet’s dex entries describe it as Pokémon that will fight stronger opponents more out of recklessness than bravery, and Braviary’s dex entries describe it as a Pokémon that will bravely fight for its friends to protect them, even if they themselves are hurt.

I felt like this fit how I write Akari pretty well. Sometimes she’s reckless, yes, but she will take on whatever comes after herself or her friends, and will keep pushing. (Such as frequently claiming to fight Arceus to get Ingo home with her if she has to — she will follow through with this if she must!!)

[joejhang]

in retrospect this line is so fucking funny

[doccywhomst]

okay so i understand that daleks are one of the main brand icons of doctor who, and that they represent a certain breed of fascist thought that can never be fully stamped out, but. :/

i think im ready for the daleks to die.

daleks have been central to doctor who from the very beginning (the second ever episode, the daleks, and season 2’s the dalek invasion of earth), embodying fear, hate, imperialism, and the darker sides of our own nature - but it seems that, for a while now, their continued existence has been maintained solely by the doctor’s mercy and/or ineptitude ??? which sucks as a theme imo

a great example is remembrance of the daleks, a seventh doctor story from 1988 - yes, the one where the doctor blows up skaro. or, davros fires a device the doctor boobytrapped at skaro’s sun, which goes supernova and destroys every dalek in that region of space. it’s pretty baller. anyway! davros and a few daleks hop in an escape pod and fuck off, and the doctor just lets them. k.

(skaro’s destruction was later ‘corrected’ by widely-detested EDA author john peel in war of the daleks, which is unhyperbolically the worst book i’ve ever read, and thus disregarded! but this heretical text explains that the planet was a decoy named antalin. it’s awful yeah. i tried to warn you)

exhibit b: evolution of the daleks (2007). ten confronts dalek caan, the sole survivor of the cult of skaro, at the top of the empire state building. the daleks have just created and annihilated a slave race of pig people, and it’s horrible to watch. you get the feeling that they’ve done this millions of times all across the universe, because they canonically have. they are inherently imperialist, racist, and genocidal. the doctor knows this.

and the doctor’s response is basically “killing you would mean that I commit genocide, so let’s just hang out and have a conversation.”

dalek caan gets away.

and you’ll never guess where he goes. that’s right! he hops the time lock and grabs davros, who escaped in remembrance of the daleks!!! and they make a bunch of new dalek babies together, out of davros’ gross old flesh. it’s a tentacle fest.

so he was right. killing dalek caan would’ve been a genocide- but because he didn’t, now there are ten thousand genocides. a clear improvement!

exhibit d: victory of the daleks (2010).

after a couple of false starts, the daleks manage to make more daleks after tricking the doctor into confirming their species to open their own device (??? okay sure)- but then they trick him again with a robot scientist bomb that he failed to detect even after talking to the guy, and it’s just like…. fool the doctor once, shame on you, fool them twice? damn, you must be on the merch.

exhibit e: the witch’s familiar (2015).

the iconic ‘only other chair on skaro’ scene where twelve and davros chat on the rebuilt dalek home world - super fun, so fun i forgot how the doctor folded like a house of cards. davros, the genocidal maniac, wants to live another day to see a pretty sunrise, so the doctor *checks notes* gives him some artron energy? that can’t be right, wh- oh- oh, but it’s fine because it affects all daleks, and through some contrived science magic, they all ‘learn the concept of mercy.’ on accident.

and it changed nothing. later stories retcon this. i’m too tired to even think about resolution, revolution, or eve of the daleks right now, but those episodes only further cemented my malaise regarding the doctor’s apparent complacency.

again and again, the daleks depend on the doctor’s mercy, and they get it, and they WIN- and it feels like the moral is that they should be eliminated like an unthinking, unfeeling virus, but the doctor is just too compassionate or inept for the job. certainly not the first doctor to lose to a virus, but perhaps the first to do so willingly.

beyond a loss in revenue, i can’t imagine why the doctor couldn’t destroy the daleks, or why they wouldn’t want to - there was a point when, allegedly, “the time lord’s continuity could not survive without the daleks” (“neverland” audio), but i think the weight and relevance of that harry potter type threat has long since passed.

so… it might be time to put the daleks away, for now. sure, they can come back as a concession to the persistence of fascist ideology, but watching the doctor lose or win to fascism for seemingly arbitrary (always sentimental) reasons isn’t really satisfying. the show addresses that daleks cause untold suffering, but again and again the only obstacle to no suffering is the doctor, who can’t get their shit together! it’s killing me.

[rookmeo]

day 6: old or new (@sekaitransparents event)

rb + credit if using

[carbone14]

Boeing P-26A Peashooter du 19th Pursuit Squadron, 18th Pursuit Group – Hawaï – 6 mars 1939

[masons-tours]

Mason at arriving at Williams-Brice Stadium

Source: Maia.Khambhaita

[transingthoseformers]

I can't find my previous post about it but I understand that tfone probably meant 50 cycles (as in 50 robot-years) since the Thirteen died, but it'd be incredibly funny if it was 50 cycles (as in robot-days) since the Thirteen died😔

[vonramblings]