New Pre-K bill moving forward

Keeping our eye on federal issues, a bill sponsored by Rep. Hirono (D-HI) is making it's way through Congress. The Providing Resources Early for Kids (PRE-K) Act of 2008 would provide $500 million a year for a grant program to states, tribes, and tribal organizations for improving state-funded pre-k programming.

States must provide a portion of matching funds and set aside 10% for children birth to age 3. The federal resources cannot replace any current funding for pre-k programming. The resources are to first be used to improve the quality of programs, providing such things as increasing the number of teachers with BA degrees in early childhood, improve child-teacher ratios, and increase the hours or days of classroom time.

The bill was approved two weeks ago by the House Committee on Education and Labor.

Our friends at NWLC have a nice summary.

In Minnesota, we do not have a state funded pre-k program. Three and four year olds may participate in School Readiness programs through the public schools. But these programs do not have the resources to meet standards such as the number of hours per week and weeks per year that most other pre-k programs have. According to Dr Arthur Reynolds form the U of MN, currently about 2% of Minnesota 4 year olds participate in School Readiness programs through their school districts.

A growing number of states are implementing pre-k programs and no two are exactly alike. See our chart of state pre-k programs. There are some ideas floating around the Minnesota legislature to implement a similar voluntary program in Minnesota. Stay in touch with Ready 4 K over the coming months and let us know what you think. How would a voluntary pre-k program best fit in Minnesota?

photo by Dazed81

Presidential Views on ECE

As Independence Day rolls closer, I'm naturally inclined to pay more attention to national politics--as if the presidential race this year won't draw millions of new people into the process anyway. It’s an exciting year to be paying attention too, as Sen. Barack Obama-D and Sen. John McCain-R offer stark differences for voters in their style, policy positions and backgrounds.
Of course, Ready 4 K is interested in what the senators have to say about early childhood issues. Let’s take a look at some snippets from their websites to see how they fare:

Obama outlines his plan for early childhood here, and offered some suggestions in a speech last fall. Obama’s website gives more details as well:

Expand Early Childhood Education: Research shows that half of low-income children start school up to two years behind their peers in preschool skills and that these early achievement gaps continue throughout elementary school. Obama has been a champion of early childhood education since his years in the Illinois legislature….Read more here.

Support Parents with Young Children: Barack Obama would expand programs like the successful Nurse-Family Partnership to all low-income, first-time mothers….Read more here.

Expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit: Barack Obama will reform the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit by making it refundable and allowing low-income families to receive up to a 50 percent credit for their child care expenses….Read more here.

McCain, on the other hand, sticks to broad generalities in most instances on his website. In the education section of his site, he focuses on the role of parents to choose their chidren's schools:

Public education should be defined as one in which our public support for a child's education follows that child into the school the parent chooses. The school is charged with the responsibility of educating the child, and must have the resources and management authority to deliver on that responsibility. They must also report to the parents and the public on their progress.

“Early childhood” is not mentioned on his website.

It is still early in the campaign and this is reflected not only in the candidates own words (or lack there of), but also in the fact that it’s difficult to find a good analysis and comparison of where Obama and McCain stand on the issue.

What do you think? Which candidate has the better approach to early childhood?

Looking for new ways to finance early care and education

A leader in the field, Louise Stoney from the Alliance on Early Childhood Finance has put forth a new model for thinking about state funding for early childhood programs. Stoney co-authored the paper, Smarter Reform: Moving Beyond Single Program Solutions to an Early Care and Education System and she has great ideas about how to integrate the pre-k movement with the early care and education system. Stoney's ideas have been influential for us at Ready 4 K over the past eight months or so. One key idea is creating a funding structure that integrates direct funding to programs with "portable" dollars that flow directly to families and that the dollars are tied directly to quality standards. We see this framework as a way to integrate the various ideas put forward by the Minnesota legislature. In 2007, the MN House supported investing in the current infrastructure of early learning programs and the Senate put forward creating Pre-K allowances (scholarships) for low-income families to afford high quality early learning.

The structure that Stoney proposes would create room for agreement between both the House and Senate and allow for each body to make the investments they desire.

Does this model make sense to you? What do you see as benefits or challenges with this kind of system?

Another way to encourage reading

As we saw in the ECIPs post on Language and Literacy development, it's important to encourage early literacy with preschool aged children. The more exposure children have to books and reading, the better.

I came across this article about using therapy dogs as reading companions. Children practice by reading aloud to the dog (under supervision of the trainer). This low-stress environment and forgiving audience as well as the physical contact with the dog help boost the child's reading confidence. The children also learn compassion and basic pet-care.

Now, it is not expected that every 3 or 4 year old be able to read aloud fluently. But just pretending to read a story aloud to another person/pet/stuffed animal is excellent early literacy practice. The more children learn to read for pleasure, the greater the likelihood that they will read above grade level and eventually become life-long readers.

What do you think?

photo by acpl

Link love: new parenting site

If you haven’t come across it yet, a new website for Minnesota parents launched recently: Minnmoms.com

The site is sponsored and supported by the Pioneer Press and covers topics such as time savers and discussion on topics such as child safety or how much to spend on your kids. There are also some great discussion boards and several bloggers sharing stories and insights.

Check it out and join in!

PreK in community-based programs

Around the country, states are beginning to offer voluntary state-funded PreK programs to 4 year olds, and sometimes 3 year olds. See chart of 10 states leading the way in PreK. Most of these state PreK programs are part-time and delivered through school-based programs just during the school year. The teachers often are required to have a BA or even an MA in early childhood education.

One of the first questions to arise in this scenario is “what about children in child care centers?” or “what about working families who depend on full day care?” Many states have chosen to allow PreK programs to be delivered directly in child care settings. The National Women’s Law Center published a report on this topic, “A Center Piece of the PreK Puzzle”.

Some of the benefits of providing PreK in child care centers:

• Gives a high quality option for families who need all day, year round care
• Children do not have to change locations to participate in PreK programming
• Parents with infants and toddlers as well as PreK aged children can have all of their children receiving care and education at the same center
• Schools often do not have the space to provide PreK for all children in their community, by partnering with child care more children can access PreK
• Child care centers receive stable funding to enhance the quality of all their programs
• Builds on the experience of established centers in the community

Some of the challenges revolve around a variety of issues, including:

• Financing the programs and who will cover which costs
• Compensation and qualifications for teachers, directors, and other staff
• Navigating relationships between school districts and centers
• Programming issues such as curriculum and
• Coordination and community planning

Each state does things a little differently and the way these challenges are tackled varies. Currently, these sorts of child care/school district partnerships are not common in Minnesota (though there are some exceptional partnerships). The only state-funding for PreK in Minnesota comes in the form of School Readiness dollars going to school districts to target children likely to not be ready to learn when they start kindergarten. School districts then combine these resources with other revenue to provide early childhood education.

Earlier this year, the NWLC held a conference call on financing state PreK programs in child care centers. Then, last month the NWLC held a conference call going into further detail about the workforce benefits and challenges of delivering state PreK in community-based settings. Listen to the calls or link to transcripts here.

Both the report and these calls cover all the angles of providing PreK in community-based settings.

What do you think? As a parent, how would you respond if your child care center began offering state-funded PreK? As a child care provider or school district staff, what sorts of challenges do you see? Are you part of a special partnership between a school district and child care? Please share.

Thank you to everyone who voted in our poll. 85% of you said you’re interested in policy and advocacy topics. Taking a cue from you, the majority of our posts will relate to policy and advocacy… not to say that you won’t see posts on child development, parenting and news and events from time to time.

Building on the successes: chart of state Pre-K programs

After looking at what advocates in other states have done to advance early childhood funding, I thought it would be a good time to share a little more about what’s going on around the country.

Last fall, Ready 4 K’s fabulous HECUA intern, Taylor put together this chart outlining the programs in other states. We looked at the 10 leading states in providing state-supported Pre-kindergarten. The topics covered for each state:

• How the program is funded
• Is there a piece for infants and toddlers
• Who is eligible for the program
• How community child care is involved
• How Head Start is involved
• What sort of Professional Development is offered
• The role of the governor
• Whether or not there is a Quality Rating System
• What kind of statewide governance structure is there

View the chart here.

As we move ahead, it's good to learn from our allies in other states and then develop a system that builds on what we have here.

What do think should be the key components of an early childhood system in Minnesota?

Today is the last day to submit your response to our poll: "What early childhood topics interest you the most?"