February 4, 2011 - This Week @ the Capitol
From Ready 4 K
This week at the Capitol was heavily focused on the actions of the administration, with Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius testifying before the House education committees and Governor Mark Dayton announcing his 2011 bonding proposal and his education reform package.
The week started with Governor Dayton releasing his nearly billion dollar bonding proposal. He named nearly half of the projects, and urged the legislature to come up with the other half. Most significantly for us, he included $3 million for early childhood facilities. While the legislature has been reluctant to indicate their willingness to pass a bonding bill of any size, we’re hopeful that should there be one, funding for early childhood facilities will be included.
The Education Commissioner was introduced to the House Education Finance and the House Education Reform Committee this week. She and her staff gave an overview of the department and its various programs and services, and indicated her strong support for early childhood. Listen to it here.
The week culminated with the Governor and Commissioner releasing an outline of their education reform package, which was heavily focused on early childhood. The top three priorities are to improve state education funding, focus more resources and raise the profile of early childhood, and to narrow the achievement gap. In his 7-Point Plan for Achieving Excellence, early childhood is a strong focus:
- Invest in early childhood and targeted all-day kindergarten.
- Implement clearly defined school readiness standards
- Adopt pre-k to grade 3 literacy standards
- Support early childhood teacher observation and development
- Reauthorize the Governor’s Early Childhood Advisory Council and re-establish the Children’s Cabinet, and
- Charge the Commissioner with leadership of early childhood initiatives.
Further details of his proposal won’t be clear until legislation is introduced and until his budget is released on February 15. Said Ready 4 K President Todd Otis: “We are pleased to see Governor Mark Dayton and Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius recognize that early care and education is critical to the future prosperity of the state, and have pledged to invest more resources for our youngest Minnesotans….Voters understand this, the business community gets it, and it’s great that state leadership is showing their commitment to this important issue.” Read the news release, the 7 Point Plan, and the full statement from Todd Otis.
Watch the press conference at The UpTake.
Finally, many of our partners and allies attended a wonderful session this week on messaging. Generously hosted by the Minneapolis Foundation and provided by the Frameworks Institute, it helped all of us be more coordinated in our messaging about early care and education. Look for further details next week in our newsletter.
Coming Up @ the Capitol
The big news of the coming week is the Governor’s State of the State on Wednesday at noon. You can watch it live here. Look at the Legislative Calendar for the most up-to-date hearing information.
There are many ways to stay informed and in touch with our work during the legislative session. We hold quarterly partner meetings, with the next one being in March. Look for an email soon with more details. Also, our close partner Child Care WORKS holds their Policy Hour the first Tuesday of every month, so if you’re in the area this Tuesday, stop by Children’s Home Society and Family Services at noon.
And of course, be sure to check us out on 
(@Ready4K) and 
(Facebook.com/ready4k).