Capitol update for March 20, 2009

This week at the Capitol, little happened in terms of early childhood care and education legislation moving through the system. But that doesn’t mean that the week wasn’t crammed with happenings about early childhood!

Governor’s Supplemental Budget

To account for the growing budget deficit as announced earlier this month and the infusion of federal stimulus dollars into the state coffers, the Governor revised parts of his budget this week. The only change to early childhood is a delay in the CCAP rate cuts and copay increases to Oct. 1, 2010. (His previous budget had CCAP cuts beginning in July 2009.)

Voices for Children Day

Thursday was Voices for Children Day at the Capitol. Over 800 children, parents and providers showed up and raised their voices for children! Sarah Caruso, president of the Minnesota Children’s Museum and chair of the Governor's Early Childhood Advisory Council spoke, representatives from ECFE, Head Start, school-based programs and child care gave rallying speeches, and Rep. Sandy Peterson, Rep. Nora Slawik, and Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher all spoke to the crowd. Thanks to all who attended, met with their legislators, and kept the issue in front of their legislators. We couldn’t have done it without you. Photos of the event will be posted at the Ready 4 K and Voices websites for photos from the event.

House Targets

Ready 4 K and our allies have been working very hard to ensure that early care and education is a top priority for legislators as they set their budget targets….and it paid off. Right on the heels of Voices for Children, the leadership of the House DFL (Speaker Kelliher and Majority Leader Tony Sertich) announced that education, including early childhood, would be spared from any cuts by the House. This is a tremendous victory given the daunting budget deficit, and is a recognition by legislators of the high return on investment the state gets when it invests in quality early learning.

In other happenings, we remain concerned about the use of unallocated funds in Basic Sliding Fee child care. This week, the Senate HHS Finance Committee proposed using a portion of the funds to fill a hole in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program. We will continue to work with committee chair Sen. Berglin to find a long-term solution to the distribution of the BSF funds.

Next week's schedule will be a bit hard to predict, with committees jamming their agendas as the first bill deadline approaches on Thursday. Hearings may be long, go in and out of recess often, and be announced at the last minute. If you are interested in a particular bill, check out the Ready 4 K bill tracker.

Capitol update for March 13, 2009

This week at the Capitol, the pace really picked up, as March 27, the first legislative deadline (for committees to act favorably on bills in their house of origin) appeared in sight. With hearings on two more of the Ready 4 K-supported bills, all of the Ready 4 K bills have met the first deadline!

The week kicked off with the House Early Childhood Committee hearing the Governor’s budget and policy bills, which could be amended when the Governor’s budget comes out. While the governor recommends increasing the duration and intensity required in School Readiness programs, a laudable goal to be sure, it comes without new funding, meaning many programs would have to shutter their doors. As Tom Holton, Community Education Director at Bloomington/Richfield schools, testified, some time in a pre-kindergarten classroom is better than none. Rep. Nora Slawik, author of the bill, pledged to continue working on the bill.

Wednesday, the Senate State and Local Government Operations and Oversight Committee heard the bill to create an Office of Early Learning. Ready 4 K Director of Policy and Civic Engagement Karen Kingsley testified in support of the bill, which was amended to stream line and simplify the language. It passed with little questioning, was re-referred to Finance, and will eventually make its way to the Education Committee. The House companion bill was also heard this week in the House Early Childhood Committee. Rob Grunewald from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank gave an overview of what other states are doing, and Zoe Nicholie, Early Childhood Systems Specialist at Ready 4 K, also testified in support of the bill. It was laid over for possible inclusion in the omnibus bill.

The Early Childhood Facilities Bonding Bill, which Ready 4 K is actively supporting, was also heard at this hearing. As you may remember, last year the Governor line-item vetoed $2 million that the Legislature had included for this project. Nedra Sims Fears from First Children’s Finance testified to the economic importance of early childhood bonding, and two past recipients of the funding talked about their projects. The bill, with $3 million for early childhood facilities, was laid over for possible inclusion in the omnibus bill. The Senate this week released their omnibus bonding bill, which includes $2 million for this project.

At the same hearing, a bill to increase child care provider rates and eliminate the Basic Sliding Fee child care waiting list was heard, and laid over for possible inclusion

Most legislators, lobbyists and the press corps spend lots of time right about now discussing spending targets in the House and Senate. These decisions will determine the level of funding (or cuts this year) that each budget committee has to make. On Friday the Senate released it’s proposal, recommending across the board cuts of 7%. This means $973 million from E-12 Education, and $719 million from Health and Human Services. Expect the House to release their targets by the end of the week, as well as the possible release of the Governor’s supplemental budget.

Ready 4 K at the Capitol

This Week @ the Capitol

This week at the Capitol provided more direction for the legislative session, as the February Forecast was released on Tuesday. It showed that the total state budget deficit has grown by nearly $2 billion—25%—since the last forecast was released in November, totaling $6.4 billion for the next two-year budget cycle. A portion of the federal stimulus funds recently approved by Congress will be available to help solve the deficit, which brings the remaining shortfall to about $4.8 billion. More information on the forecast is available at the Minnesota Management and Budget Department.

The Senate Health and Human Services Budget Division heard testimony on the budget forecast, and how it relates to Health and Human Services. Senator Linda Berglin, chair of the committee, asked specifically about the unallocated Basic Sliding Fee funds—inaccurately referring to it as a “surplus”—and whether it made sense to tie child care to MFIP growth in this economy. Ready 4 K and our allies will be working to help clarify that the “surplus” funds are not that, but represent under-spent funds by counties due to the difficulty of predicting child care use throughout the year, and should be used to serve families and children—not balance the state budget.

Tuesday also saw more bills making their way through the process, as the House Early Childhood Committee moved legislation to fund the Minnesota Reading Corps program and Words Work for early literacy. Both bills were referred to the House K-12 Division. The committee also heard testimony about the wonderful work that the St. Paul Public Schools and Resources for Child Caring are doing with Project Early Kindergarten, and some testimony from child care providers about ParentAware.

In the same committee on Thursday, a bill to fund after school programs was heard and laid over for possible inclusion in the omnibus bill. Also, you may remember that last week the bill to continue the three early childhood pilot programs was tabled. At this hearing it was removed from the table and laid over for possible inclusion in the omnibus bill.

To track this and other legislation, check out the Ready 4 K bill tracker.

This week as well, Dr. Bruce Perry, a nationally recognized expert on childhood trauma, visited Minnesota. He spoke at two legislative committees about the effects of and solutions to early childhood trauma. Visit childtrauma.org to learn more.

Federal Stimulus

Ready 4 K continues to provide analysis about the federal stimulus package. We are working with our allies to offer suggestions about potential uses for the funds, and have created a webpage to help do that.

What you can do

Visit the Capitol to see the action up close. You can always stop by your legislators' office or send them a note on the House or Senate floor. For information on the state legislature, including directions to the State Capitol and State Office Building, visit the Legislature's website.