Capitol update for April 10, 2009

The House Early Childhood Committee released their Omnibus Early Childhood Bill on Tuesday, and took public testimony on it. Ready 4 K Policy and Civic Engagement Director Karen Kingsley testified in support of it, especially the portions of it which effectively begin laying out an early childhood system. However, she did raise concerns about the proposed requirement that School Readiness programs serve children for a minimum of 12 hours a week without additional resources, and that the director of the Office of Early Learning is not a part of the Governor's cabinet, which we think he or she should be.

The bill was laid over, and next Tuesday members of committee will have a chance to offer amendments to the bill before passing it out. It should be noted that Rep. Paul Rosenthal, Vice-Chair of the committee, is working with community members to come up with some new language on the School Readiness 12 hour provision, and we can expect to see that on Tuesday. He is well aware of the concerns that have been raised about the requirement and is working to figure out a good way to proceed.

On Tuesday, the Senate Omnibus E-12 Education bill passed the full Senate, and contains mostly the same provisions as we reported on last week. (It also includes the 12 hour provision, but since it has already passed out of the Senate, the best place to influence the process at this point is the amendment Rep. Rosenthal is drafting and then in the conference committee process.)

Both the House and the Senate have passed their bonding bills, which both include $2 million for early childhood facilities. Conference committee members have been named, and the first meeting is scheduled for next week. Senate conferees include Sen. Keith Langseth (chair), Sen. Tomassoni, Sen. Lynch, Sen. Sieben and Sen. Day; and House conferees include Rep. Hausman (chair), Rep. Scalze, Rep. Wagenius, Rep. Rukavina and Rep. Howes

To track the omnibus bills, please see our updated mid-session bill tracking document.