Giving Compass' Take:

• Chalkbeat interviews Illinois First Lady Diana Rauner about early childhood initiatives in the state, specifically how to make good programs more affordable and accessible for low-income families.

• Rauner's advocacy work has a nationwide reach, with support for teacher training and an intent to reach families where they are. How can other organizations follow such a community-based model?

• When it comes to early childhood policy, here's how we can find our way out of the silos.

Fluent in the languages of developmental psychology (her Ph.D., from the University of Chicago) and finance (her MBA, from Stanford University), Illinois First Lady Diana Rauner is equipped more than most to navigate the maze that is early childhood education in America. As anyone who has tried to find, or build, a quality program for a child under 5 knows, there are plenty of hurdles to securing good options: availability and affordability; too few full-day seats for families that require them; and low pay and turnover among providers, just to name a few.

In her 11 years in leadership of the Chicago advocacy group Ounce of Prevention, Rauner has used her platform to push for higher quality programs for the youngest children in Illinois and nationwide. As the wife of Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (who is up for election this fall against another early childhood education advocate, businessman J.B. Pritzker, who has funded some of Ounce of Prevention’s work), she’s as fluent in political speak as she is everything else: “Early childhood is not a partisan issue,” she says.

Read the full article about Diana Rauner's early childhood efforts by Cassie Walker Burke at Chalkbeat.