March 19, 2010
This week at the capitol, we received the disappointing news that the Governor once again line-item vetoed bonding for Early Childhood Facilities, and again, gave no indication why. It was one of dozens of projects he eliminated from the bill, cutting it from $1 billion to $680 million, well below his suggested $725 million level. It seemed he had hoped that the Legislature would pass another, smaller bill to get funding for some key projects that the Legislature hadn’t included in their bill, but Capitol Investment conference committee chairs Sen. Keith Langseth (DFL-Glyndon) and Rep. Alice Hausman (DFL-St. Paul) have shown little interest of doing a second bill thus far.
Ready 4 K President Todd Otis said recently that “if ever there were a dramatic example of why we need to pay attention to the person we elect as Governor, this is it.” Read his full statement here.
In more positive news, several bills Ready 4 K is supporting moved further along in the process, with the Senate Education Committee dedicating an entire hearing this week to early care and education legislation. The wonderful folks from Invest Early in Grand Rapids came down to testify in support of the Early Childhood Community Partnership bill, a key initiative of the Minnesota’s Future early care and education allies group. As Blandin Foundation Program Officer Mary Kosak testified, “It was as if [bill author] Sen Tom Saxhaug, after his many visits to Invest Early, carefully crafted this legislation from what he learned.” Committee members gave helpful feedback about some of the provisions in the bill, most notably about the geographic area for grants to be made in and how the collaboration should take place. Given the fiscal challenges that the state faces, it is unlikely these grants will be funded, but it’s always good to keep this issue in front of committee members.
Other bills the committee heard included the legislative package put forward by the School Readiness Funders Coalition. The bills—making recommendations on screening and assessments of children, creating and implementing a statewide school readiness report card, and creating the Office of Early Childhood Care and Education—all received favorable comments from the committee and were re-referred to other committees for further action. The final bill the committee heard creates a program for at-risk four-year-olds, and allows school districts to levy up to $9,000 per eligible pupil to pay for it. Ready 4 K believes this bill moves the state in a positive direction by allowing districts to levy for early care and education programs.
The big news on the House side was the announcement of “budget targets” for each of the House Finance Committees. This year, since we are facing a budget deficit, the budget targets are the amount of funding committees must cut from their budgets. The House Early Childhood Policy and Finance Committee was given a target of $7.5 million. While we won’t know until next week how the Early Childhood Committee plans to allocate this cut, the $7.5 million is equal to the “underspending” in Basic Sliding Fee (BSF) child care assistance. While this would mean fewer low-income families would be served, at least it wouldn’t be a permanent cut to the program. The best of the worst, really. Click here for more information about this.
The House Early Childhood Committee this week began winding things down in preparation for their omnibus bill to be released. On Tuesday, the committee heard a proposal to allow programs that receive three or four stars on the Parent Aware quality rating and improvement system pilot to receive a 15 percent rate increase. While a step in the right direction, we would agree with Child Care WORKS Executive Director Susie Brown, that “this bill does not present a perfect long term solution as it rewards 3 and 4 stars at the same level, consistent with other Parent Aware quality incentives. We would like to eventually see in the statewide QRIS a higher rate for each star, creating incentives to move to the highest level of quality.”
At the same hearing, members heard a presentation on potential federal funding for home visiting programs. Maggie Diebel from the Mn Dept of Health was joined by Jill Briggs and Jane Kretzmann, co-chairs of the Targeted Home Visiting Coalition (which Ready 4 K is a part of). They assured the committee that the state is fully prepared to act quickly, once it becomes clear what the grant process is going to be.
The House companion bill creating an at-risk four-year-olds program was heard Thursday in the same committee, as were a presentation on Minnesota’s application for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Funding for Early Childhood State Advisory Councils and a presentation of the MN Parents Know website.
Finally, we learned just today that federal funding for the Early Learning Challenge Fund was removed from the US Senate’s budget bill, essentially signaling that it will not happen in this go-around of federal budget negotiations. Stay tuned.
Track all the early care and education bills here.
Next Friday is the third and final legislative deadline, which is for divisions of the House and Senate Committees on Finance to act favorably on omnibus appropriation bills. We haven’t heard yet what the plans are in the Senate, but the House Early Childhood Committee will be posting their omnibus bill on the committee’s webpage at 11a.m on Monday. Amendments and testimony will follow on Tuesday and Thursday. Please show up and show your support (but note the new time below)!
The legislature goes on spring break Tuesday, March 30 to Tuesday, April 6. As such there will be not be a Ready 4 K @ the Capitol next week. Instead, as is the tradition, we will send out and post here a mid-session update.
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