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.

Capitol update for April 3, 2009

This week at the Capitol, committees packed their schedules in preparation for the coming spring break, beginning on Tuesday, April 7 at midnight. The delay in this week’s update was due to the detailed analysis of the budget, included below!

Of most interest to early childhood advocates was the release of the Senate Omnibus Education Bill on Wednesday, which included a comprehensive package of policy changes, as reported in last week’s update, as well as $14 million in spending.

Not only did the Senate not include any cuts to early childhood on the education side of the ledger, but, under Sen. Tarryl Clark’s leadership, the Senate also recommended continuing the Pre-k Allowances pilot project for another year, expanding the Allowances into several other areas of the state in FY 2011, and also adding them to the base budget beginning in the same year. In conjunction with the Allowances, $500,000 was included in the next biennium for the Parent Aware quality rating system, plus $1 million each additional year going forward. The final bill passed out of the Senate E-12 Education Budget Division on Thursday, was heard and passed out of full Finance on Friday, will be heard in Taxes on Monday, and hopefully pass the full Senate prior to the break. Whew!

Switching to the human services side of things in the Senate, Sen. Berglin is not expected to release her budget prior to the break. While child care has typically not fared as well in the Senate, this year the federal stimulus dollars may help reverse this trend to some degree. On Thursday, representatives of Child Care WORKS, the Minnesota Child Care Association, and the Minnesota Child Care Resource and Referral Network testified before the Senate Health and Human Services Budget Division in support of legislation to direct the $26 million in child care development fund dollars included in the federal stimulus package. Along with our allies, we are recommending using the $3.4 million in required quality set aside dollars to continue the Family, Friend and Neighbor grant program, fund Parent Aware, and fund provider training in preparation for a statewide QRS. The bill also specifies that the remaining $22.6 million should be spent to increase provider reimbursement rates, eliminate the basic sliding fee waiting list, and continue the School Readiness Connections pilot. It was laid over for possible inclusion in the omnibus bill.

Over in the House, Rep. Nora Slawik’s committee heard the House companion to the federal stimulus bill, several bills related to child care licensing, and Ready 4 K lobbyist Eric Haugee testified in support of legislation charging the Early Childhood Advisory Council to conduct a comprehensive inventory of early care and education program funding and usage. Both it and its Senate companion passed their committees, and are waiting for votes on their respective floors.

Coming Up @ the Capitol

Like springtime in Minnesota, expect a somewhat unpredictable week. Will is rain? Will it snow? Maybe the sun will come out? While you should check out the legislative schedule pages for up-to-date hearings, the following items are currently scheduled.

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.

Voices for Children Advocacy Day brings energy to the capitol!

On March 19, more than 800 children, parents and early care and education providers gathered at the Capitol to raise their voices for our children! During the rally in the capitol rotunda, Rep. Nora Slawik, Rep. Sandy Peterson, and Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher spoke to the enthusiastic crowd showing their support for Minnesota’s children. Sarah Caruso, president of the Minnesota Children’s Museum and chair of the Governor's Early Childhood Advisory Council and Todd Otis, president of Ready 4 K also spoke. Parents of children in early childhood programs across the state gave testimonials about their wonderful experiences with the programs their families have benefited from. The Teddy Bear Band gave a special performance, bringing even more energy to the event. The kids were so excited they couldn’t stop cheering!

Children filled the Great Hall throughout the morning enjoying all sorts of fun activities.

Included in the activities were hilarious stories from the St. Paul Public Library, songs by musicians from the MacPhail Center for Music, necklace-making stations from Lakeshore Learning, and exciting games from the Minnesota Children’s Museum. The kids got crafty making flowers to give to our representatives. Colorful posters with their work were created with the message “Plant the Seeds: Help Children Bloom." The messages were hand delivered by the children to the Speaker of the House.

The day ended with great news for the world of early childhood. The Speaker of the House announced that the House majority caucus has made a commitment to investing in early childhood care and education!

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.

Early childhood in the Federal Stimulus package

Now signed into law, the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has a lot of expectations riding on it. The good news is that early childhood programs are recognized as part of the package. A quick summary from the National Women's Law Center gives the basics (link to summary):

The Act will help low-income parents obtain the child care they need to get and keep jobs and help children get the early learning they need to succeed by providing:

• $2 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, with the entire amount available upon enactment. Of this total, $255.2 million is reserved for quality improvement activities, of which $93.587 million is targeted to improve infant and toddler care.
• $1 billion for Head Start, allocated according to the current statutory formula, and $1.1 billion for Early Head Start, to be awarded on a competitive basis.
• $2.33 billion for Department of Defense facilities, including quality of life and family-friendly military improvement projects such as family housing, hospitals, and child care centers.
• $13 billion for Title I grants for education programs for disadvantaged children, including early childhood programs and activities.
• $11.7 billion to local education agencies for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) programs for children ages 3 to 21, including $400 million for preschool grants (section 619) programs.
• $500 million for formula grants under IDEA Part C to help states serve children with disabilities and special needs age 2 and younger.

Advocates at Early Ed Watch have put together a more comprehensive summary here.

While we are still waiting to learn how exactly the dollars will flow to Minnesota, it is good news for our elected officials to recognize early care and education as part of keeping America on track and building for a sustainable future. Children don't stop learning just because the economy is bad and many more families will face challenges that can hinder a child's ability to be ready to learn at the start of school.

Stay tuned as we learn more about the stimulus plan and how it will impact Minnesota's state budget.

photo by Tracy O