Legislative Alert!!

This session I have had the opportunity to testify at the legislature on the 2 bills relating to an increase in the general community education levy and a bill introduced last week by Rep. Nora Slawik to increase the ECFE levy beyond what the Minnesota Community Education Association has requested. (Wow!!)

We are quickly approaching the deadlines for the budget bills. It is imperative that your legislator hears from you about the issues and concerns that impact ECFE and School Readiness. Below are the key messages for you to deliver to your legislators. I also want to encourage you to ask friends and family members who not only live in SLP but other communities to contact their legislators and ask for their support on these issues.

(It really is true--legislators pay attention to what their constituents tell them. If you have never contact a legislator before, now is the time to do it!)

General Community Education
* Community Education provides learning opportunities for the entire population of the District Community.
* Community Education opens the school facilities to residents for use during non-school hours and days.
* Community Education supports the community to identify and meet local needs by utilizing school and community resources.

HF138 & SF203 seeks to restore the 2003 budget cuts, bringing the per capita formula back to their 1987 level of $5.95.
* This increase would allow school districts and community education departments to increase programming and citizen involvement efforts for every district resident.

Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE)
* ECFE engages and supports parents as their child's first teacher.
* ECFE is a nationally recognized model that provides access to all families.
* ECFE is a school based program that offers a sliding fee and fee waivers based on family income.

HF178 & SF 803 seek to restore ECFE funding to its 2001 level of $120 per 0-4 aged resident, increase the minimum amount a small district can receive and increase the money set appropriated for home visiting families with unique needs.
HF 1232 seeks to increase ECFE funding to $135 per 0-4 aged resident.
* This funding increase will help restore cuts to programs and allow more families to participate, including families on limited incomes, and will offer more support to smaller districts assuring that ECFE is deliverable state wide.

School Readiness
* School Readiness is funding to increase the school readiness of children of low income or at risk of starting kindergarten behind their peers through community collaborations.
* School Readiness involves parents in their child's learning and success.
* School Readiness uses the Indicators of Progress to assure program quality and the Work Sampling Tool, to evaluate early learning and family outcomes.

HF 327 & SF 803 seek to increase the state appropriations from the $9 M
annually set in 1991 to $20 M annually.
* This increased funding allows districts to offer greater intensity and duration of programming to children and families most in need.

MCEA's Position on Early Education Allowance, Scholarship, or Voucher
Bills? (This is SF3)

We are pleased to see the Legislative interest in providing quality early education programs that all learners can access to close the achievement gap. However, we have some concerns that need to be addressed.

* Many families who would benefit the most from scholarships do not file income taxes, some are not English speaking, and many are intimidated by government systems. How would they access these financial awards?
* Who would insure that quality learning environments will exist in programs that can help close the achievement gap?
* How will the scholarships work for school based programs that are required by law to offer our services for free to families who are low income?
* Why create a new early education system when programs like School Readiness exist in statute already? Why not invest in this school-based program designed to achieve the outcomes of the new programs but it has not seen an increased state investment since 1992?

If you have any questions, please either email or call me (obrien.mary@slpschools.org) or 952/928-6778.

Thank you for your help!

Why this blog

Welcome to the St. Louis Park ECFE Advisory Council blog!

Many of you were interested in participating in the 3 task forces set up through the Council: Legislative, Program and Budget.

Interest and participation don't always go hand in hand. You are busy!! So rather than setting up another series of meetings, I thought perhaps an electronic community would allow you to participate when your schedule allows. Many of you have shared that you get to your emails only after the little ones are down for (hopefully) the night. This, then, might work for you!

Check back frequently for posts and comments about the 3 issues listed above.

This blog will focus on the current legislative session.

There are a number of bills relating to ECFE and School Readiness that have been introduced or are being introduced into both the House and Senate. There is a very easy way to track these bills. Go to www.leg.state.mn.us, then click on My Bills. You can set up an account to track the bills you are interested in. The ones I would suggest you follow are:

HF0005 - Chief Author: Bly
Description: Early childhood family education, school readiness, and Head Start program funding increased; and money appropriated.

HF0138 - Chief Author: Simon
Description: Community education revenue program funding increased.

HF0178 - Chief Author: Fritz Description: Early childhood family education funding increased, minimum population used to calculate revenue increased, and home visiting early childhood family education program revenue increased.

HF0327 - Chief Author: Hortman Description: School readiness programs state aid increased, and money appropriated.

HF0595 - Chief Author: Laine Description: Newborn home visiting program and family home visiting program established, and money appropriated.

SF0003 - Chief Author: Clark Description: Early childhood learning preparedness and enrichment allowance establishment This bill currently has the strongest "legs" in the Senate.

SF0126 - Chief Author: Torres Ray Description: Early childhood family education, school readiness and head start programs funding increase

SF0203 - Chief Author: Latz Description: Community education revenue funding increase

SF0434 - Chief Author: Bonoff Description: Universal newborn home visiting program and family home visiting grant program

SF0435 - Chief Author: Pappas Description: School readiness and head start programs funding increase

SF0579 - Chief Author: Bonoff Description: ECFE program enhancement and accountability plan; developmental assessment at kindergarten entrance; parent education grants I would be glad to answer any questions or respond to any comments you might post and I encourage you to talk with each other about this topic via posts to this blog as well!