Ready 4 K @ the Capitol - February 12

This week at the Capitol, the bonding bill was the focus of most of the activity, passing the full Senate on Tuesday and clearing all the committees in the House. The $2 million for early childhood facilities remains intact in both bills; however, in the House Finance Committee hearing, the grant program language was amended to the increase the amount that projects may receive. Under current law, a grant for an individual facility must not exceed $300,000 for each program that is housed in a facility, up to a maximum of $750,000 for a facility that houses three programs or more (programs include Head Start, School Readiness, Early Childhood Family Education, licensed child care, and other early childhood intervention programs). The amendment changes the amounts to $500,000 and $2 million, respectively.

The full House is expected to take up the bill on Monday. Upon passage, the House and Senate will work out the differences between the two bills, and submit it to Governor Pawlenty, where he can sign it, line-item veto individual projects, or veto the entire bill. We will be working to ensure that the facility grants do not end up as a casualty of the veto pen, so if have any connections to the Governor, please use them!

The House Early Childhood Committee held their first two hearings of the 2010 Legislative Session this week. On Tuesday, the committee had an update from the Department of Human Services and the Head Start Association on American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009 funding. Yasmina Vinci, national Head Start Director, had been in town for a previous engagement and thankfully for the committee, her return flight to Washington DC was delayed due to the winter storms. She was able to tell the committee about federal budget activity, and in particular speak about the recent Head Start Impact Study findings , which showed, among other things, that “providing access to Head Start has a positive impact on children’s preschool experience.”

On Thursday, the committee heard from Kathryn Tout, project director at Child Trends, on key findings from the Year 2 Evaluation Report of Parent Aware, as well as two providers—Nicole Joy Frethem from Lexington Kids Christian Childcare and Shelly Thunborg from New Horizon Academy—about their experience with the rating system. The committee members engaged in a thoughtful discussion about the research methodology and the next steps with Parent Aware.

Our bill tracker is up! While only two bills relating to early care and education have been introduced, expect more in the coming days.

Coming Up @ the Capitol

The big news next week is that the Governor’s budget will be released on Monday. While he outlined in his State of the State that he would hold programs for the military, veterans, core public safety functions and K-12 classrooms harmless, he declared that “nearly all other areas will be proposed for reduction.” Many committee hearings next week will be focused on hearing from the administration about the governor’s budget. We are bracing for the worst, and hoping for the best.