HARRISBURG, Pa. - Children half the smoking age for Pennsylvania are actually laboring in America's tobacco fields, according to new reports. It's hard to tell how many or how old they are. But an Oxfam America/Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) study found many workers in North Carolina tobacco fields are younger than 18. FLOC's president and founder Baldemar Velasquez says families put their children to work to get by. He says their interviews found kids typically start in their early teens, but sometimes much younger.
"Seven, eight on up," says Velasquez. "We've seen kids this summer that were 13 and 15 and they'd tell us they were working in tobacco seven years, five years."
The major tobacco companies all have policies against child labor, but a federal loophole intended for farm families leaves the practice in a legal gray area.
Velasquez says he worked in tobacco as a teen; in fact low wages meant he started working in other crops with the rest of his family when he was six. As he puts it "it was either that or not eating." Velasquez says the families, often here illegally, are at the mercy of labor contractors. He says economic pressures mean farm owners and cigarette companies look the other way when crew leaders break the law.
"Doesn't matter to the crew leader, the labor contractor, because he gets the money from the harvest," Velasquez says. "He doesn't care how small the hands are putting cut tobacco on the trailer, as long as the acres get done."
According to a separate report from Human Rights Watch, about half of all tobacco farm laborers make less than minimum wage. It found 12-hour days are common, and 16-hour days not unusual. Off the farms this country eliminated most child labor decades ago.
"These are symptoms of a broader labor problem," he says. "We used to have children in the mines of America, textile mills of America. When unions were formed they negotiated away those conditions."
Velasquez says the fights unions won in the mines of Pennsylvania a century ago still have to be fought in the tobacco fields.
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If the election season made one thing clear, it is neither side can hear what the other is saying and one expert believes it is because most of us were not taught "active listening" in school.
Christine Miles, founder of The Listening Path Classroom program, said only about 2% of schools offer formal listening skill development programs, which can handicap our success as adults. Miles believes too many of us listen half-heartedly, keen to share our thoughts or arguments the minute the other person stops talking.
"This is not new," Miles pointed out. "Since 1957, there's been talk about the fact that there's not formal education in schools on listening, and the reason I think it hasn't been solved is because listening has been notoriously hard."
Research shows students from kindergarten through 12th grade spend 50% to 75% of their classroom time listening, yet comprehend only 25% to 50% of what they hear. According to Miles, when it comes to politics, it is rarely effective to argue someone into adopting your position.
Miles believes technology is partly to blame for poor listening. Kids spend so many hours on their electronic devices, Miles explained some develop a natural form of attention deficit disorder, even if they don't have the condition biochemically.
"What the technology has done is made our brains even more impatient and more distracted than they already were," Miles contended. "If we don't help them learn how to have conversations about things they disagree about, how will they learn how to manage that?"
Miles noted becoming an adult without good listening skills can affect both academic success and social-emotional learning. To develop better skills, experts recommended being fully present in a conversation, showing interest by practicing good eye contact, asking open-ended questions, paraphrasing and reflecting back what has been said and withholding judgment and advice.
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The early childhood development initiative "Too Small to Fail" is expanding in Pennsylvania to boost children's brain and language development, preparing them for kindergarten and beyond.
Nearly 60% of children in the United States begin kindergarten unprepared, lagging behind their peers in essential language and reading skills.
Perri Chinalai, managing director of the Too Small to Fail program for the Clinton Foundation, said her organization is partnering with the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy and the United Way of Pennsylvania to implement 250 new early education programs over the next two years.
"We worked with laundromats and transforming laundromat spaces into literacy-rich environments, because we know that families are going to laundromats," Chinalai explained. "How can we think about really encouraging talking, reading and singing in spaces where families are?"
Chinalai added the Barbara Bush Foundation works with children in early learning all the way through school-age kids, and the Too Small to Fail focuses on children aged 0-5. The initiative has donated more than 1.4 million children's books to families in under-resourced communities.
Chinalai noted they partnered with the Department of Public Health and Office of Homeless Services to transform two health centers in Philadelphia and a homeless intake shelter. She added over the past 11 years, the program has worked with communities across the country and have launched more than 40 campaigns.
"For the first year of this project, through our partnership with the United Way location, we will be partnering with six different locations, including the Titusville region, Lycoming County, Wyoming Valley, Southern Allegheny Capital Region and Bucks County," Chinalai outlined. "To really think about how we can incorporate these strategies within the work that they're already doing for children and families."
She added they are also working with a local bookstore called Tree House Books to restock bookshelves. She emphasized the campaigns will focus on training trusted messengers, transforming learning spaces and distributing resources to families.
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Child care workers across the nation, including in Tennessee, are struggling with poverty-level wages according to a new report.
It revealed in Tennessee, the median wage for early childhood educators is less than $15 an hour.
Anna Powell, senior research and policy associate for the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California-Berkeley, said the median wage nationally for early childhood educators is just $13.07 an hour, which has resulted in some workers relying on public assistance.
"In Tennessee, we estimate the median hourly wage to be $11.57 for a person working in early care and education," Powell reported. "Meanwhile, the living wage in that state is about $15.03, so that means there's a gap of about 23%."
The 2024 Early Childhood Workforce Index showed pay scales are insufficient for a single adult to earn a living wage in any state. Alarmingly, nearly half of child care workers rely on assistance programs, such as SNAP benefits and Medicaid, to survive.
Powell pointed out the data also show serious inequities in wages.
"While the overall wages are low, we do find evidence that Black and Latina women are earning even less on average," Powell explained. "For example, up to $8,000 less a year, regardless of their education levels."
The study suggested boosting public funding for early childhood education, as the U.S. invests only $4,000 per child annually, far less than the $14,000 in other wealthy countries.
The pandemic highlighted the critical role of educators and Powell pointed out COVID relief funds showed potential solutions are within reach.
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