More Art I Did For Hktkparody1week!

Briefly bringing back the sskk actors au to say:

Atsushi: It's of uttermost importance that we add a scene where vampire Akutagawa bites me Director: … It isn't? It would solve absolutely no plot purpose whatsoever? There's no need to? Atsushi, now with increased emphasis: It's of uttermost importance that we add a scene where vampire Akutagawa bites me. It's necessary and vital that we insert a scene where vampire Akutagawa bites me. It's fundamental to the show that we feature a scene where vampire Akutagawa bites me. The whole world is going to fall down if we don't include a scene where vampire Akutagawa bites me. My neck has to be bitten by vampire Akutagawa. Vampire Akutagawa's fangs have to be on my neck.

Kevin: I can't promise he'll ever speak to you

Jean:

[RELEASE] D.Gray-man Chapter 252

Grab a copy of SQ.RISE 2024 SUMMER here to support Hoshino if you can!

Release 153 // [10.27.24]

Mangadex | Mirror

Here it is!! Thank you everyone for your patience and much, much love to the team for their hard work ❤️

Enjoy the chapter~

the Guardian

New Mexico made childcare free. It lifted 120,000 people above the poverty line

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

"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

The Foxes as Kermit the Frog

Neil:

Andrew:

Kevin:

Aaron:

Nicky:

Renee:

Allison:

Matt:

Dan:

Wymack:

300 days of war 🇵🇸🍉

have drained us and shattered our spirits. 💔

We no longer have the right to the most basic necessities of life.

We can no longer sleep in a safe place.

Do you realize that we endure immense suffering just to get water?

After hours of exhausting search, I found a well, but I don’t know if the water is safe to drink.

Diseases are spreading among us, and we desperately need your help to escape this nightmare.

gofundme.com

Donate to Support Mahmoud's Family in Their Struggle, organized by Mahmoud Ziad

I am Mahmoud, I am 24 years old, but in the last 7 months, I have become like … Mahmoud Ziad needs your support for Support Mahmoud's Family

I love Haikyuu so much you don’t understand

Reblog if you think asexuality is a legitimate sexuality.

I'm trying to prove something.

“i wanna be the nagi reo wants me to be”

“reo….. reo….. reo”

what is going on the field? like nagi chanting reo’s name is actually insane.. nagi gonna get fired up next chapter and show reo the new nagi, the one that fascinates reo just like how nagi is fascinated by him ,,, let’s be so fr tho nagi could be a roach and reo would still love and be in awe abt him

reo automatically APOLOGIZING to nagi for scoring his own goal,,, he is so selfless like no no reo you have to jump in the air and CHEER BE PROUD ilovehim </3

but people saying like nagi backstory incoming but … literally nagi’s life started as soon as he met reo so like it would deadass be montage of reo’s iconic big smile 😭