January 16, 2009 - This Week @ the Capitol
From Ready 4 K
The House Early Childhood Committee has had two hearings thus far, both on overviews of their budget jurisdictions—one on the programs in the Department of Education, and one on the programs in the Department of Human Services. These proved to be very useful, as 8 of the 14 members of the committee are new to the committee, and 4 of those are new members to the House. The DHS hearing also included information on the School Readiness Connections pilot program, which is set to expire on June 30, 2009. Ready 4 K is advocating continuing this and the other two pilots which were started in 2007—Pre-K Allowances and Family, Friend and Neighbor.
One other positive note is that during the budget overview in the Senate E-12 committee, Sen. Leroy Stumpf, the chair of the committee, mentioned that it was unlikely that they would be recommending any cuts to preventive programs, like early childhood.
Governor Tim Pawlenty gave his annual State of the State address this week, in which he began to lay out his budget and policy recommendations for the session, prior to him releasing his full budget on January 27. He made no mention of early childhood care and education, for better or worse.
What you can do
Stay in touch with your [school's!] legislators throughout the session and remind them of your interest in investing in high quality early childhood education and care. Legislators are hearing from many people about a variety of issues, so we need to remind them not to forget our youngest citizens.
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.