This Week @ the Capitol - April 9, 2010
From Ready 4 K
This week at the Capitol, legislators returned to work after a week-long break, and spent a lot of time moving smaller bills through the process. The passage of federal health care reform will have huge implications for the budget in Minnesota, and it is still not clear how much money the state will receive. While we expect the Senate to release their human services budget in the next week or so, which will include child care, the final result hinges on how fast details emerge about the federal health care changes. Check out MinnesotaBudgetBites.org for a good summary of what health care reform means for Minnesota. The education budget is anticipated to be released following the passage of the HHS budget.
The House Housing and Public Health Committee released their budget this week, and included no cuts to family home visiting. This bill will be rolled into the Omnibus HHS bill.
We also learned that the Economic Development provisions of the omnibus budget bill that passed the Legislature last week included roughly $200,000 in taconite proceeds to be used to build an Early Childhood Community Center in Nashwauk, MN. This was a project that had sought bonding dollars this year and would have been eligible for funding through the early childhood facilities grant program that the Governor line-item veteod.
We are beginning to plan for the conference committee process, talking to likely members and preparing our tracking documents. Check out the initial draft of our 2010 Conference Committee Tracker, which will replace the bill tracker once we see the E-12 Education and HHS budgets from the Senate.
Next week is Week of the Young Child and is an opportunity to honor young children and thank teachers and all those who make a difference in young children’s lives. We are working with the Legislative Early Childhood Caucus to plan some activities—possibly voting on some key legislation or reading a proclamation during session—to raise awareness of the week (Thursday is a likely day for these activities), and we will keep you informed of any advocacy that is needed.
If you’d like to plan some activities in your community, the National Association for the Education of Young Children has a great handbook outlining a variety of ideas for ways that early childhood programs and other organizations can plan events that:
- • Promote early literacy and learning in your community
- • Thank teachers in your community
- • Influence public policy in your community, in your state, and nationally.
To view the handbook or other resources, visit http://www.naeyc.org/woyc.
