Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Almost makes you think about moving to Iowa, doesn't it...
Early childhood, alas, is a battleground here
Lori Sturdevant
Star Tribune, October 14, 2005 at 4:51 PM
When the governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsack, paid a visit a few days ago, I asked how he and his Legislature get anything done. The partisan split one state south is even meaner than Minnesota's: 25-25 in the Senate; 51 R's, 49 D's in the House.
Next thing I knew, the two-term Democrat was talking up early childhood education.
"The goal of governing is to figure out where the common ground is," Vilsack said. He found a fertile patch around efforts to improve the affordability and quality of child care. In the past three years, Iowa pumped $50 million more in state funds toward those goals -- $22 million this year -- without raising taxes to do it. He'll push for more next year.
Vilsack's Strong Start initiative was a natural for the state with the third-highest percentage of women in the workforce, he said. It includes higher child care subsidies for low-income parents, quality ratings for child care providers, training for child care workers (with the carrot of higher reimbursement for a trained staff), tax credits for preschool tuition, and grants for local efforts at parent education.
So what's going on in the state with the highest percentage of women in the workforce?
Let's see: Minnesota cut $150 million from child care support for low-income families in the past three years. Legislators cut, then partially restored, funds for Head Start and the state's much-admired Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) program.
Maddeningly, the 2005 session also killed funding for a survey of kindergartners' school readiness. Three years of that effort produced the alarming finding that only about half of Minnesota kindergartners arrive at school fully prepared for its lessons. Apparently, that's news legislators would rather not hear.
Those changes were pushed by Republicans and opposed by DFLers. Early childhood doesn't sit on common ground in Minnesota. It's on a battleground.
Why? I puzzled over that question Tuesday night at Sabathani Center in south Minneapolis, at a public forum convened by the Legislature's Early Childhood Caucus.
Two things were striking about that event. One was that people who care about child care just kept coming. A dimly lit room prepared for about 100 people overflowed with more than 200 grown-ups and kids.
The room buzzed with resentment over the escalating cost low-income parents must pay for licensed child care, and the stress the state's retreat has put not only on household budgets but also on child care providers. Several inner-city providers said they aren't sure they'll be in business in six months, because so many of the parents they serve can no longer afford their services.
The other conspicuous fact was this: There wasn't a Republican elected official in the room.
Five legislators represented the Early Childhood Caucus. All were DFLers. Members of and/or candidates for the city's school board, City Council and Park Board were there in force -- all DFLers.
Despite the strength in numbers the forum produced, the absence of Republicans made the big showing seem futile, and the cause marginal.
State Rep. Nora Slawik, DFL-Maplewood, was obliged to explain that the Early Childhood Caucus she helped organize includes Republicans, too -- dozens of them. Further, the Minneapolis event was one of a series of forums, and at those in the suburbs, Republican legislators were in attendance.
But last session, some of those same Republicans were willing to cut child care help for poor families, even as they boasted about increases in ECFE and Head Start. They should have heard what the parents said at Sabathani: Licensed child care is the only shot many low-income kids get at preschool, and that shot is being taken away from them.
Lori Sturdevant is a Star Tribune editorial writer and columnist.
Early childhood, alas, is a battleground here
Lori Sturdevant
Star Tribune, October 14, 2005 at 4:51 PM
When the governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsack, paid a visit a few days ago, I asked how he and his Legislature get anything done. The partisan split one state south is even meaner than Minnesota's: 25-25 in the Senate; 51 R's, 49 D's in the House.
Next thing I knew, the two-term Democrat was talking up early childhood education.
"The goal of governing is to figure out where the common ground is," Vilsack said. He found a fertile patch around efforts to improve the affordability and quality of child care. In the past three years, Iowa pumped $50 million more in state funds toward those goals -- $22 million this year -- without raising taxes to do it. He'll push for more next year.
Vilsack's Strong Start initiative was a natural for the state with the third-highest percentage of women in the workforce, he said. It includes higher child care subsidies for low-income parents, quality ratings for child care providers, training for child care workers (with the carrot of higher reimbursement for a trained staff), tax credits for preschool tuition, and grants for local efforts at parent education.
So what's going on in the state with the highest percentage of women in the workforce?
Let's see: Minnesota cut $150 million from child care support for low-income families in the past three years. Legislators cut, then partially restored, funds for Head Start and the state's much-admired Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) program.
Maddeningly, the 2005 session also killed funding for a survey of kindergartners' school readiness. Three years of that effort produced the alarming finding that only about half of Minnesota kindergartners arrive at school fully prepared for its lessons. Apparently, that's news legislators would rather not hear.
Those changes were pushed by Republicans and opposed by DFLers. Early childhood doesn't sit on common ground in Minnesota. It's on a battleground.
Why? I puzzled over that question Tuesday night at Sabathani Center in south Minneapolis, at a public forum convened by the Legislature's Early Childhood Caucus.
Two things were striking about that event. One was that people who care about child care just kept coming. A dimly lit room prepared for about 100 people overflowed with more than 200 grown-ups and kids.
The room buzzed with resentment over the escalating cost low-income parents must pay for licensed child care, and the stress the state's retreat has put not only on household budgets but also on child care providers. Several inner-city providers said they aren't sure they'll be in business in six months, because so many of the parents they serve can no longer afford their services.
The other conspicuous fact was this: There wasn't a Republican elected official in the room.
Five legislators represented the Early Childhood Caucus. All were DFLers. Members of and/or candidates for the city's school board, City Council and Park Board were there in force -- all DFLers.
Despite the strength in numbers the forum produced, the absence of Republicans made the big showing seem futile, and the cause marginal.
State Rep. Nora Slawik, DFL-Maplewood, was obliged to explain that the Early Childhood Caucus she helped organize includes Republicans, too -- dozens of them. Further, the Minneapolis event was one of a series of forums, and at those in the suburbs, Republican legislators were in attendance.
But last session, some of those same Republicans were willing to cut child care help for poor families, even as they boasted about increases in ECFE and Head Start. They should have heard what the parents said at Sabathani: Licensed child care is the only shot many low-income kids get at preschool, and that shot is being taken away from them.
Lori Sturdevant is a Star Tribune editorial writer and columnist.
// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 4:04 PM 
