Helping State Agencies Coordinate Early Learning

A strong governance system, including coordinated state agencies, is an important part of providing accessible early learning. Ready 4 K's BUILD Initiative is specifically focused on creating the framework for a strong, coordinated early learning system in Minnesota.

One piece of legislation that Ready 4 K has been following is the creation of an Office of Early Learning. A great article summarizing this legislation and other related pieces can be found here. From the article:

Researchers, including Art Rolnick, senior vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, see positive results from early childhood education. But it wasn’t until bank staff crunched the numbers that anyone had looked at this as an economic investment. By Rolnick’s calculations, the return would be equivalent to 16 percent annually on a $22,000 investment.

More focus on early childhood learning by establishing an Office of Early Learning might just help boost the bottom line, supporters say. The office would gather employees of the Health and Human Services departments who oversee day care programs and Department of Education employees who deal with programs like Head Start.

Rep. Sandra Peterson (DFL-New Hope) sponsors HF2983, which would create the office and appoint a director to coordinate childhood systems between the two organizations.

The Minnesota Legislative session is scheduled to end May 19. Stay tuned here for updates and an end-of-session summary.