Make Child Care High Quality

High-quality child care isn’t about fancy buildings or high-tech gadgets - it’s about relationships. Meaningful connections between caregivers and children create the foundation for great early education, no matter the setting. In this episode, we talk to early childhood expert Junlei Li to explore what truly defines high-quality early learning, the many places where children can experience it, and why paying teachers like teachers is key to sustaining quality care. We also visit a home child care in Juneau, Alaska, where exceptional early education is happening every day. This series is created and produced with Neighborhood Villages, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming child care through innovative program-building and policy design. Visit to learn more. If you’d like to contribute to the fight for a better child care system, consider a donation to Neighborhood Villages by visiting To learn more about Junlei Li’s research, check out this webinar. Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia. Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our shows and get bonus content.

You can listen to Make Child Care High Quality online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Make Child Care High Quality is an episode from No One is Coming to Save Us by Lemonada Media.

This episode is 37:06 long.

This episode was published on May 8, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from No One is Coming to Save Us when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.