Get to know your candidates

If you haven't noticed, election season is upon us. Now is a great time to engage your candidates and tell them to make early care and education a top priority. One way to get to know your candidates is to hold a candidate coffee. This informal gathering is a job interview for who you will hire to represent you. (We pay their salaries, so we're the bosses.) You can find out where the candidates stand on the issues that are important to you. It is also an excellent opportunity to educate candidates so that whoever is elected will start their job one day one knowing what is important to you.

A candidate coffee is simple. You can read our Holding a Candidate Coffee tips page in the Advocacy Resources section of our website.

Keep the group small and the setting casual. The goal is to have an open conversation, not a political speech. The group should be made up of constituents of the district. Candidates like to talk directly to the people they will be representing and it is the citizens of the district who will be making their choice.

In the last election cycle, I attended a candidate coffee in the home of one of our advocates. The advocate invited some of his neighbors who also had young children. About eight of us were there and we chatted ahead of time to figure out what questions we wanted to ask and what issues to discuss. We had treats and other refreshments to share. Candidates from both major parties were invited to come visit with the group at separate times. One candidate came first and the group talked with the him for about 45 minutes. The second candidate arrived and the group had a similar conversation with that candidate for about the same amount of time. Before each candidate left, the group provided information and materials on early care and education as well as their contact information in case the candidate had any additional questions.

The candidate coffee was interesting and informative for all who attended. We were able to hear directly from the candidates and move away from scripted speeches. The candidates were able to engage constituents and begin building relationships with early childhood advocates in their district.

View the Holding a Candidate Coffee page for more details on how the steps for setting up a candidate coffee and sample questions. If you would like to hold a candidate coffee in your Minnesota house district, contact Ready 4 K and we will work with you to set one up.

Stepping up for quality preschool

Recently, the Wall Street Journal printed an opinion piece by Shikha Dalmia and Lisa Snell titled Protect our Kids from Preschool. The article took the position that early childhood education is not a good investment and can even be harmful to children. There are a number of inaccuracies in the piece that are pointed out in responses by Early Ed Watch, NIEER, Pre-K Now and others in the Journal. It is disappointing that the nation’s premier financial journal would allow such inaccuracies to be printed and to negate the strong investment that is early care and education.

Steven Barnett of NIEER and David Kirp from UC Berkeley had a counter piece in the San Francisco Chronicle, The War Against Preschool. They offer a strong point and counterpoint to the Dalmia/Snell article.

In a time of economic downturn, investing in the first five years of children’s lives is the smartest thing that we can do. Economists and policy analysts including Art Rolnick and Robert Reich agree that early investments are a key strategy to shoring up our long-term economic standing. As the election season kicks into the highest gear, it’s time to remind our candidates that strong early investments are the first step for our future.

photo by merebearlandon