Author: Stefi Mar

Bakersfield
Stefi Mar

New Research Shows the Many Benefits of Early Learning

While the evidence is clear that pre-K makes a meaningful difference for children in the short and long term, children need access to high-quality programs to experience these benefits. Access, however, remains unequal, particularly to programs that provide high-quality experiences.“An Updated Look at Pre-K in Large American Cities,” research findings include:

African Americans
Stefi Mar

A Head Start Administrator’s Story

My name is Marcia Claggett. I reside in Calvert County, Maryland , and work at the United Planning Organization’s (UPO) Office of Early Learning in Washington, D.C. As a child at the age of 3, I was enrolled in the Head Start program located at the Southern Maryland Tri-County Community Action Committee. The year would be 1970. I completed two years of Head Start with the program and I have to add that my mother was introduced to much-needed services that assisted her in making ends meet. 

African Americans
Stefi Mar

Bakersfield Links Inc. Hosts Fourth Annual Black Family Wellness Expo

Free health screenings and vendor exhibits draw a broad cross-section of residents; Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, Rep. 35th District, warns Kern County has been a designated health care shortage area “for decades” with no remedy in sight.

Arts & Culture
Stefi Mar

Spring Has Sprung in the “City of Good Neighbors

It’s that time of the year again! Days are longer, and the weather is cooler. Don’t try to explain this to Mother Nature. No one could ever imagine ushering in spring with sizzling weather.

African Americans
Stefi Mar

Author Details History of Black Leisure Sites in Southland

In her latest book, “Living the California Dream – African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era,” author Alison Rose Jefferson provides new insights into how the great migration of Blacks beginning in 1910 from the American South to the urban North, Midwest, and West challenged the prevailing narratives that exclude African Americans and shows their active role in shaping regional identity.

African Americans
Stefi Mar

AFUWI – Gala to Honor Outstanding Leaders

The American Foundation for the University of the West Indies (AFUWI) will honor two outstanding academic leaders whose work has changed access to higher education for many generations of minority students. Dr. Wayne J. Riley, President of SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, and Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick, Interim President and President Emeritus of Howard University, will be honored at AFUWI’s 29th Annual “The Legacy Continues” Awards Gala, which is scheduled for April 17, 2026, in New York City.

African Americans
Stefi Mar

Black Student Loan Default Rate Five Times Higher than Whites

On behalf of the nearly 9 million people who are now in default on their student loans, a coalition of advocates from consumer, civil rights, and education organizations is appealing to the federal Education Department to halt its plans to begin garnishing borrowers’ wages this month. Default status connotes borrowers are 270 days or more behind on their payments.

African Americans
Stefi Mar

Sen. Weber Pierson Bill Takes Aim at Early Math Gaps in California Classrooms

Senate Bill (SB) 1067, introduced in February by Sen. Akilah Weber-Pierson (D-San Diego), seeks to close California’s racial achievement gap in education by requiring universal screening and early identification of math difficulties for students in kindergarten through second grade.

African Americans
Stefi Mar

NNPA Fund Hosts Black Press Day 2026 At Howard University, Celebrating the Past and Looking Ahead to the Future 

Nearly 100 members of the Black Press – some still honing their skills as journalists in college classrooms along with seasoned veterans representing Black publications from across the U.S.; and both friends of and corporate sponsors of the Black Press, gathered on the campus of Howard University (HU) on March, 18 for this year’s Black Press Week Reception.

African Americans
Stefi Mar

OP-ED: When Media Attention Depends on Who Is Missing

The nation is right to hope and pray for the safe return of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of journalist Savannah Guthrie, co-anchor on NBC’s “Today.” Any disappearance is terrifying. Any family thrust into uncertainty deserves compassion, urgency, and relentless attention. But compassion should never be selective — and that is precisely where the media’s response exposes a troubling, long-standing inconsistency.