In the face of deficit, to cut early childhood is like dropping our best performing stock

Today we found out that the state of Minnesota will face a $1.2 billion deficit over the remainder of the biennium (ends June 30, 2011). This is on top of a $6.4 billion deficit originally dealt with by the legislature. The picture does not improve going forward; a $5.4 billion deficit is already projected for the 2012-2013 biennium. This $1.2 billion deficit is the result of a slower than anticipated economic recovery with higher than expected unemployment and lower wages. These factors combine to create a decrease in income tax revenue. Check out Minnesota Budget Bites for more detailed analysis of the budget picture.

One thing from this picture is clear: we must continue to make investing in early care and education a priority. We know this is the best investment we can make for both our short-term and long-term economic prosperity. To cut early care and education to solve the projected $1.2 billion state deficit would be like dropping our best performing stock and is exactly the wrong thing to do.

When parents know their children are well cared for they receive the assurance they need to be productive at work. Plus, giving children access to high quality programs maintains jobs for the trained professionals who work in the field. These investments also lay the foundation for future economic prosperity by ensuring that our youngest Minnesotans will be successful in school, career and life.

Ready 4 K is committed to being a voice for Minnesota’s youngest citizens. We are preparing for the 2010 legislative session and protecting our investments in the face of the $1.2 billion deficit. But we need your help. Join our network today and find out more about how you can be an advocate for children. Stay tuned for more information about Minnesota’s budget picture and its impact on Minnesota’s youngest children and families.

Join Ready 4 K by Giving to the Max!

Jumpstart your year-end giving by joining Ready 4 K and participating with GiveMN.org in Give to the Max day on November 17.

GiveMN.org is a new online forum connecting donors with local and national nonprofits and charities.

From 8am on Tuesday, November 17 to 8am on Wednesday, November 18 donations to Ready 4 K through GiveMN.org will be partially matched through a $500,000 fund donated by GiveMN.org partners. Also, all transaction fees are covered by GiveMN.org partners, so Ready 4 K will receive 100% of your contribution.

With your gift, Ready 4 K will continue to advocate for the resources and programs to give young Minnesotans the opportunity to develop the skills they need to be ready to learn in kindergarten.

Click the donate button to visit Ready 4 K’s GiveMN page and mark your calendar to come back November 17.

Early Lessons: a radio documentary

What has been the biggest, fastest expansion of public education in American history? Preschool. A new radio documentary by American Radio Works, Early Lessons, examines how early child care and education are changing public schools.

Starting with the Perry Preschool Project in the early 1960s researchers have begun to note how quality early learning can have a lasting impact on the lives of individuals and bring positive outcomes for society. Early Lessons describes how the Perry Preschool Project was conceived and the surprising outcomes from the study. It's fascinating to listen to the teachers from the Perry Preschool talk about how they developed their developmentally appropriate curriculum. They were focused both on giving the children the confidence and desire to learn as well as mastering skills that would help them improve their IQ scores, a measure that was believed to be crucial for a child's future success.

The results from the Perry Preschool study has also changed how we define the success of a program. The results from the project indicated that while the IQ score gains can "fade out" over time, the program participants benefited in other ways not measured by IQ - more likely to own a home, have a savings account, stay out of prison, have a higher paying job and more. These other benefits have an even greater impact on the community as a whole, beyond an individuals supposed IQ score, this is where the return on investment can be measured.

The Perry Preschool Project continues to be a cornerstone piece of research that influences public policy in Minnesota and around the nation.

The challenge is taking the good pieces of the Perry Preschool and replicating them in cost effective ways. Pieces like the quality of the program and the developmental appropriateness of the curriculum are more easily measured and can be replicated. The more challenging thing is to replicate the activities and lessons that gave the children the skills and motivation to continue to do well in school and later in life.

On the American Radio Works website you can listen to the documentary, download the audio or read the transcript.

Change the first 5 years and you change everything

Child Poverty in Minnesota Increases

The Children's Defense Fund - Minnesota has released their 2009 Kids Count Data book, The Building Blocks for Successful Children. According to this research, 140,000 children in Minnesota lived in poverty in 2008 - an increase of more than 20% from 2000. These numbers do not include any additional families that may have fallen into poverty due to the current economic recession. CDF estimates that an additional 44, 000 - 56,000 children could now be counted as living in poverty.

Poverty is a significant predictor for a child's future success in school and in life. Without investments in the early years to lay a solid foundation, these children will struggle to become our future leaders.

From the CDF press release:

KIDS COUNT Fact Sheet

Losing Ground:
• 11 percent of Minnesota’s children lived in poverty in 2008.
• 24 percent of Asian children in Minnesota live below the poverty level in 2007, the worst among all 32 states participating in KIDS COUNT with enough Asian children to produce reliable estimates.
• 88,000 Minnesota children did not have health care coverage in 2008, an increase from 2007.
• 270,247 (33 percent) Minnesota children received free/reduced price lunch during the 2008-2009 school year.

Gaining Ground:
• Students dropping out of school has declined 57 percent since 2000.
• 6,277 children were abused and neglected, a 33 percent decrease from 2002.
• 10,895 children were arrested for a serious crime, down from 15,398 in 2000.

The Children's Defense Fund - Minnesota also has county-level data that shows how children are living compared to other years.

US House Approves Legislation to Support Quality Early Learning

It was an exciting week last week, as the US House passed the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (H.R. 3221) by a vote of 251 to 171 on Thursday. The bill includes $8 billion for the new Early Learning Challenge Fund which would provide competitive grants to challenge states to build comprehensive, high-quality early learning systems for children up to age five. The Senate is expected to take up their version of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act soon. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, be sure to thank the Minnesota representatives who voted in favor of the legislation, Reps. Ellison, McCollum, Oberstar, Peterson and Walz. You can be connected to your representative by calling (202) 225-1904 or find out who represents you by clicking here.

Senator Harkin is New Chair of HELP Committee

The sad passing of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass) last month left vacant the chairmanship of the powerful Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP), which oversees the Child Care and Development Block Grant, Head Start, education for young children with disabilities and special needs, Title I, and Higher Education.

We are pleased to announce that longtime friend to Minnesota and champion of education, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has graciously accepted the chairmanship, while Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark) will replace Sen. Harkin as Chair of the Agricultural Committee, which is responsible for child nutrition programs including the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Read his announcement here.

Innovation for Family, Friend and Neighbor Care continues

Today in Minnesota is the second of a two day national meeting on Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN) care. The meeting is put on by the national Build and attendees from various Build states are attending. Ready 4 K is the home of Build in Minnesota. According to the National Build Initiative, the goals of the meeting include:

• Increase dialogue and build momentum among all stakeholders to advance support for Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN) caregivers.
• Provide a forum for peer-to-peer and expert information and strategy sharing to examine emerging models and the lessons that can be taken from them.
  
• Foster an understanding of how to integrate FFN care into early childhood systems and how to create and advance a policy agenda for FFN care.
• Foster an understanding of how the strengths of FFN care relate to our long-standing conceptions about quality and quality improvement, particularly related to cultural compatibility between a child’s family life and his/her child care life.
• Stimulate thought about next steps to forward our shared agendas in the field.

Minnesota was chosen to host this meeting partly because of the groundbreaking legislation passed in 2007 that made Minnesota the first state to dedicate money to supporting Family, Friend and Neighbor caregivers. Richard Chase from Wilder Research published a case study of Minnesota's success, State Policies for Supporting Family Friend and Neighbor Care.

There's also exciting things happening around the country. Representatives from Washington state and Illinois also share what is happening in their states. In Illinois, great innovation is happening by using dollars from their Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) to reimburse FFN providers when the children they care for participate in the state's Pre-K program four days a week and have a weekly home visit.

The next steps in Minnesota are:

• to continue DHS FFN pilots with CCDF quality set-aside/ARRA stimulus funding (see Ready 4 K's Milestones article, "Family Friend and Neighbor Grants Renewed")
  
• create a webpage on the Child Care Resource & Referral network website devoted to FFNs
• further work from systems building efforts such as Build and MECCS and state departments to improve quality of FFNs