I became director of the Hechinger Institute in 2003 after many years writing about education for the Los Angeles Times, Oakland Tribune, and other California newspapers. I joined the Hechinger Institute because I care deeply about education and journalism and journalism about education. I think it's one of the most important beats in any news organization. I'm proud to be in a position to help my colleagues make the most of it.

Well, here we are, the first working day of 2007. My resolution is to become more insightful into analyzing journalism about early learning, to work hard to find new brilliant voices out there on the web telling us about early learning, and to be more creative and forward-looking in suggesting ways for early learning to be covered. Oh, and lose 15 pounds and read more.

I really think that 2007 will be a banner year for stories involving early learning. The New York Times reported Dec. 29 that Democrats had picked up more than 350 seats and gained control of 10 state legislatures. That should bode well for increased investment in pre-kindergarten. Moreover, Republicans have been supporters of public funds for pre-kindergarten in many states and devoting public dollars to pre-kindergarten may be a popular issue for Republicans to support, in order to make gains in the 2008 election. This is an emerging story that bears watching.

Despite lots and lots of early ed news I've been offline, running the Hechinger Institute after the departure of several staffers....also have been very busy with seminars for journalists, which is our main activity. I blogged a bit earlier on the talk Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredeson gave at the Hechinger seminar end of June, discussing the political challenges he faced in expanding his state's investments in early childhood education. The governor also explained that he thought it was better for states to emphasize quality and expand slowly rather than go big but cheap all at once. Tennessee's program meets 9 out of the 10 quality indicators that the National Institute on Early Education Research uses to analyze state programs. Look for more from EarlyStories and, as always, let me know if you see good stories in early ed being covered well, not being covered well-enough, or not being covered at all.....

EarlyStories has been on extended hiatus. (This blogging business is harder than it looks.) It's back now. Look for regular entries from now on.

The very able Liz Willen, associate director of the Hechinger Institute and a former award-winning reporter for Bloomberg News, and the tech-savvy and creative Zaira Zafra, also of the Hechinger Institute, will begin gracing EarlyStories with their presence. More views the better, I say.