Maine

Just over the border of western Maine, the province of Quebec created a government-subsidized universal child care system for preschool-age children 20 years ago. Advocates of the system say it has provided parents with affordable child care, but acknowledge that the quality has been inconsistent among nonprofit and for-profit providers.

This show is part of Maine Public's Deep Dive Special Series on child care in Maine.

We wrap up Maine Public's special child care series with a conversation about challenges and priorities for child care in Maine. What are some potential solutions or paths forward? What is being done elsewhere that is a model for our state? And are there policies or programs that show promise for alleviating the child care crisis?

Mark your calendar! Join the Maine Public news department for a community discussion around Maine Public's Deep Dive on child care in Maine on 5:30-7 p.m. Monday, July 8, at the Portland Public Library Rines Auditorium at 5 Monument Square. Hosted by Patty Wight, Maine Public's reporters will meet to discuss what was learned and next steps surrounding the issues that were touched on in the series. They will also be there to hear from you and listen to your comments and field your questions.

On Monday, Oct. 20, 1943, a two-room nursery school opened in Brunswick. Though nursery schools were not particularly common at the time, this would not have been notable, except for one thing: the new nursery school was part of a program which, for the first and only time in U.S. history, provided cheap, universally available, federally subsidized child care.

Linda Holmes is the pop culture correspondent for NPR and the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour. Her first novel, "Evvie Drake Starts Over," which is about love and sad things and baseball and the state of Maine, comes out on June 25. Maine Public’s All Things Considered host Nora Flaherty will interview Holmes on Thursday evening (June 27) at the Portland Public Library.

June 27 is the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising in New York, the "birthdate" of the modern gay rights movement. July 7 is the 35th anniversary of the death of Charlie Howard in Bangor, the event which led to the founding of MLGPA, predecessor of Equality Maine. This year also marks the 45 anniversary of the founding of the Wilde-Stein Club at UMaine in Orono, Maine's first LGBTQ organization.  Our panel discusses LGBTQ life in Maine, past, present and future.