Ready 4 K @ the Capitol - February 5

This week at the Capitol, legislators returned to St. Paul with essentially two tasks: solve a $1.2 billion budget deficit and pass a large bonding bill in the hopes of putting Minnesotans back to work. The deficit is expected to balloon to $5.4 billion in 2012-13, and there is some interest in starting to take a whack at this future deficit as well. And, with legislators running for re-election this fall and several of them running for Governor (current Governor Tim Pawlenty is not seeking re-election), it could get very messy.

So what’s in store for early care and education? As you may remember, last session, thanks in large part to your efforts, funding for early childhood programs was held harmless. Our top priority this session will be once again to make the case that an economic downtown is exactly the wrong time to cut funding for early care and education. However, even with Senate and House leadership acknowledging that early care and education is one of their top priorities, it may be difficult to withstand cuts in this environment. But that doesn’t mean we won’t fight!

Our other priorities this session are to encourage and support efforts happening at the local level, by giving communities the authority to fund early childhood initiatives through local revenue options and by encouraging the establishment of local early childhood community partnerships. We are still developing these initiatives and will be seeking your feedback and support soon.

We will also continue to support ongoing efforts to develop the voluntary Quality Rating and Improvement System. In addition to tracking what is happening with the Parent Aware pilots, Ready 4 K is supporting a bill to realign current funding to provide additional resources for providers to help them get ready for the statewide expansion of the QRIS. Once this bill is introduced we will let you know.

Ready 4 K is taking the lead again to secure bonding dollars for communities to build early childhood facilities, and we’re happy to report that $2 million for these grants was included in the House and Senate bonding bills! As you may remember, the Governor has vetoed this funding the past two years, so we’re focusing most of our efforts on reaching out to him for his support. Please talk to your local legislator and urge them to contact the Governor about this funding.

Check out our full 2010 Legislative Session Policy Recommendations here. We are still developing this years’ bill tracker, and you can expect it to be up and running by next week.

Take Action!

Now is the time to send your legislator a note to welcome them to session. Let them know that we must continue to make early care and education a top priority. Visit our Take Action page to send a message to the governor and your legislators.