A leader in the field, Louise Stoney from the Alliance on Early Childhood Finance has put forth a new model for thinking about state funding for early childhood programs. Stoney co-authored the paper, Smarter Reform: Moving Beyond Single Program Solutions to an Early Care and Education System and she has great ideas about how to integrate the pre-k movement with the early care and education system. Stoney's ideas have been influential for us at Ready 4 K over the past eight months or so. One key idea is creating a funding structure that integrates direct funding to programs with "portable" dollars that flow directly to families and that the dollars are tied directly to quality standards. We see this framework as a way to integrate the various ideas put forward by the Minnesota legislature. In 2007, the MN House supported investing in the current infrastructure of early learning programs and the Senate put forward creating Pre-K allowances (scholarships) for low-income families to afford high quality early learning.
The structure that Stoney proposes would create room for agreement between both the House and Senate and allow for each body to make the investments they desire.
Does this model make sense to you? What do you see as benefits or challenges with this kind of system?
No comments:
Post a Comment