March 5, 2010 - This Week @ the Capitol
From Ready 4 K
This week at the Capitol, committees ramped up their work, as deadlines loom in the near future. The Capitol Investment Work Group (formerly Conference Committee) continued to meet and try to reach an agreement on the overall size of the bonding bill. The pace of the session makes it feel like late April, with the warming temperatures not helping—even though we know there are three more months left and more snow eventually on the way.
The week kicked off with hundreds of parents, children and providers raising their voices for continued investments in early care and education. The twelfth annual “Voices for Children” advocacy day on the hill sent a powerful message to legislators and the Governor that an economic recession is exactly the wrong time to cut your best performing stock, our children. Photos and more can be found on the “Voices for Children” Facebook page.
The February Forecast was released this week with little fanfare, showing a small decrease in the state deficit from $1.2 billion to $994 million. There is no sign that the Governor plans to reduce any of his proposed cuts based on the forecast.
On Tuesday, the House Early Childhood Committee took up a bill to fund local early childhood partnerships to collaborate to get the best outcomes for young children and their families. Ready 4 K Policy and Civic Engagement Director Karen Kingsley joined Rep. Sandy Peterson, author of the bill and co-chair of the Early Childhood Caucus, in reviewing the legislation, which is the product of months of work of Minnesota’s Future, a collaborative effort of several early care and education organizations to put forward an agenda for Minnesota’s next governor. We are encouraging organizations from across the state to endorse this effort, and you can join by visiting the Minnesota’s Future website and completing the online form.
Providing an example of local collaboration, Jane Patrick, Early Childhood Initiative Coordinator from Fergus Falls and Nancy Jost, West Central Initiative Early Childhood Coordinator, gave wonderful testimony about the success they’ve had in their communities bringing people together from health, schools and early childhood to give children and families the support they need to be successful. The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in the omnibus bill. Watch the hearing here.
The committee also heard a presentation of the Child Care Assistance Simplification Task Force, which laid out a series of recommendations to improve the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) and make it easier for families and providers to participate. Legislation to implement one of the recommendations —to allow teen parents to have continuity of care for their children for up to one year—was also heard and laid over for possible inclusion in the omnibus bill.
On Thursday, the House Early Childhood Committee heard presentations about evaluations of the School Readiness Connections program, Pre-K Allowances and the Early Childhood Scholarship program. All evaluations showed largely positive results, however the evaluations did generate some lively discussion in the hearing about the best way to finance increased access to high quality early learning.
Over in the Senate, the bill to designate $500,000 of current child care quality dollars specifically to help providers get ready for QRIS passed another committee and was sent directly to the floor of the Senate. During the hearing, members of the committee had good questions about the quality dollars, but did note that of the nearly $10 million total dollars set aside for quality efforts, $1.3 million of those are state dollars. The lack of any increase in the state allocation in the past several years—in fact it was cut by two percent in 2008—will hopefully deter any further erosion of these important resources.
Also, the Senate Higher Ed Budget Division presented its budget, and thankfully did not accept the Governor’s $500,000 cut to child care grants for low-income college students.
In a chess-like maneuver, the Bonding Work Group passed a slightly trimmed down bill, adding some of the Governor’s key priorities and removing some of theirs that he had objected to. Expect it to be passed by both bodies next week and sent to the governor. This differs from “normal” negotiations, which usually involve trading written offers between the conference committee and the Governor, before passing a final agreed-upon bill. While early childhood facilities grants remain intact, given the size of the bill, we anticipate the overall bill will have the same fate of the first bill and be vetoed. So, we’ll have to keep fighting to make sure early childhood facilities remain in the (really) final version of the bonding bill.
Check out the updated bill tracker here.
March Forth for Child Care and Head Start
From Ready 4 K, the National Women’s Law Center and Child Care WORKS!
While we’re in the midst of an active legislative session here in Minnesota, Congress is also making important decisions for our youngest citizens. Today thousands of advocates are joining together to “March Forth” in support of increased federal funding for child care, Head Start and child nutrition. This year’s action theme — “Families Earning, Children Learning” — reminds Congress of the importance of these programs for children, parents and our economic recovery.
Background:
Your Members of Congress have started to work on the federal budget, which determines a large chunk of funding for child care and early education programs, along with other programs that matter for women and families. By calling today, we can make sure that Congress knows that the increased investments proposed in the President’s budget are necessary. President Obama has proposed a $1.6 billion increase in funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a $989 million increase in funding for Head Start/Early Head Start, and a $1 billion increase in funding for child nutrition.
The more calls and e-mails they get, the more pressure Congress will feel to support these vital programs. So please help spread the word by forwarding this e-mail to friends, family and colleagues.
Learn more and act: National Women’s Law Center or Child Care WORKS
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