TKW Consulting

Minnesota voters place early care and education as a top priority for the state on par withimproving public education, according to a poll conducted by Peter Hart Research Associates and Decision Resources. This survey is the first of its kind in Minnesota.

Paid for by Pre K Now, the poll surveyed a representative sample of 604 voters statewide on January 27 and 28, 2006. Across party lines, socioeconomic strata, and geographic regions, Minnesotans believe that making sure all children start kindergarten with the knowledge and skills they need to do their best is an extremely important public investment. They are willing to elect leaders who will help make this happen. The momentum on this issue has been building for some time, and voters are voicing their support. It is up to all of us to remain focused and relentless in our drive to assure our youngest citizens have access to the highest quality experiences possible in their first five years.

Voters understand that many children start kindergarten unprepared. 63 % believe that half of children or fewer begin kindergarten without the knowledge and skills they need to do their best.

Adequate education funding is more important to voters than tax concerns. 64% would rather the state make sure there is sufficient funding for needs such as education ascompared to 29% who prefer to hold the line on taxes.

Early education is of particular value and is an important priority for the government to address now. 71% believe that making sure all children in Minnesota startkindergarten with the knowledge and skills they need to do their best in school is extremelyimportant and should be a top priority for the state. 59% think that establishing voluntary pre-k programs for all is an important priority to address now, because getting children ready for school will help improve K-12 education.

Candidates for office can only benefit politically from advocating for increased investment in early education. 54% are more likely to vote for a candidate for state legislator or Governor who supports making voluntary high-quality early education programs available to all children.

Attending early learning programs helps children do better in K-12. 78% think that when it comes to doing well in school, children who have attended an early learning program do better in school.

Early childhood education has a good head of political steam.

Here's a stunner: Something has at least equaled, and maybe surpassed, K-12 education in Minnesotans' expectations from state government.

It's preschool.

At the Capitol, where public opinion fever lines are avidly followed, that word from a poll this week ought to attract considerable notice. The statewide poll found 71 percent of respondents saying that properly preparing every child to do his or her best in kindergarten is a top priority for the state. K-12 betterment was so ranked by 69 percent, a statistically insignificant difference.

What's more, 54 percent of those polled said they would be at least somewhat more likely to support a candidate for the Legislature or governor who advances a plan to make high-quality early ed available to all families. Only 15 percent of respondents had the contrary view.

Those findings have a respectable bipartisan pedigree. They were jointly produced by Peter Hart Research Associates, which often works for Democratic candidates, and Decision Resources Inc., a Minnesota firm headed by Bill Morris, former GOP state chairman, in a project financed by the nonpartisan national group Pre K Now. The respondents were not a band of liberals: 72 percent of those surveyed identified themselves as either moderate or conservative politically.

What was telling is that regardless of age, income, gender or location in the state, those polled were strongly in favor of a larger state role in preschool education. They were divided over whether the state's role should be to provide universal-access programs, or support means-tested assistance to low-income families.

Minnesota's answer traditionally has been "both:" the all-comers Early Childhood Family Education program and sliding-fee child care help funded by the state. But drastic cuts, particularly in the latter, have left the state's early childhood education infrastructure in depleted condition. The poll suggested that Minnesotans know as much: 63 percent said that in their judgment, half of the state's kindergartners arrive in school less than fully prepared to learn.

That matches the results of assessments conducted in 2002-04 --assessments that were unwisely eliminated by the Legislature in 2005. If the 2006 Legislature finds itself without the money to do much else about early childhood in this non-budget session, it ought to at least come up with the few hundred thousand dollars needed to resume measuring school readiness.

©2006 Star Tribune. All rights
reserved.

The truth is Minnesota taxpayers provide significant subsidies for child care through our welfare Minnesota Family Investment Program and our generous sliding fee programs. In fact, our sliding fee program is in the top five in the nation in terms of income eligibility (250 percent of poverty – more than $50,000 per year for a family of four).

Add to this equally generous federal and state tax benefits and you have hundreds of
millions of dollars each year helping families with their child care expenses. Thank you, taxpayers.

The liberal “never enough” rhetoric would have you believe our child care subsidies have been gutted in recent years. False! We did lower the income eligibility in our sliding fee subsidy program from 300 percent to 250 percent of poverty in fairness to hardworking taxpayers. At 250 percent we are higher than any state in our region and in the top five in the nation – still very, very generous.

We also set the entry point to sliding fee subsidy at 175 percent to be sure that we are helping the neediest – no savings were involved.

Did you know that we allow these subsidized families to access virtually the most expensive child care in Minnesota, expenses unaffordable to most unsubsidized families?The system allowed access to 75 percent of the child care center market. Taxpayers paid full market price up to this level for each class of child care.

Our reform action was to freeze the upper limit rate for the last three years. Child care rates that were increased were paid in full unless they went over the 75 percent limit. We did not cut child care rates!

Other reforms included tighter controls on absent day payment. Why should the taxpayer pay for child care for a family that chronically abuses the actual use of child care by frequent and inexcusable absences?

These and other reforms saved money while improving the efficiency and integrity of our
child care subsidy programs. Saving taxpayer money by improving the integrity of our public programs is a long way from “ruthless cuts.”

News reports recently announced that Minnesota’s day care costs are among the most expensive in the nation. Last November, the press reported that only a quarter of the state’s child care centers programs for ages 3-5 received high marks, most meeting only minimal standards.

At that time, the liberal “never enough” advocates said it was because we were not willing to spend enough. Somehow this recent report about high costs begs the question as to just how much is enough. How about taking a hard look at the delivery system and its efficiency instead of simply blaming taxpayers for not giving enough? Is it possible that the huge amount of taxpayer money in the child care system helps inflates expenses?

Let me be clear that I greatly respect the dedication and professionalism of child care
provider direct care staff. They provide the loving care our children and parents cherish. They certainly do not get rich doing so. So where does all the money go?

I wish I knew. I do suspect a significant amount of overhead, bureaucracy and wasteful regulations are large contributors. The complex and wasteful system of taxpayer subsidy is another major contributor. Recent legislative audits have found many faults in our rate-setting system.

There is no question that affordable quality child care is important to Minnesota families and our economy. But, I do not believe that a limitless “tax-and-spend” philosophy will work. We need conscientious and thoughtful reforms and a system that is better balanced and fair.

Fran Bradley, R-Rochester, is a member of the Minnesota House and chairman of its Health Policy and Finance Committee.

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 4:20 PM 0 comments

Isn’t it ironic that a country whose constitution allows for the pursuit of happiness now feels a collective guilt about the very idea of anything fun? How did this happen? When did we begin placing so much priority on productivity and so little on leisure or on having a good time? Even given the Puritan work ethic, life in America has become so unbalanced that one side of the seesaw is pretty much grounded. But why must we insist that our children, who by their very nature are playful, share these particular values? Why are we so anxious for our children to “act like adults?”....

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 4:10 PM 0 comments

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To hear Rolnick tell the story, his recent fixation on the schooling of preschoolers just sort of shimmied into his path. Two years ago, he was attending a breakfast gathering put together by former Minnesota governor Al Quie and ex-Minneapolis mayor Don Fraser for Ready 4 K, a local early education advocacy group. Quie and Fraser were arguing for state funding. But to Rolnick, their pitch seemed incomplete. “I naively raised my hand and said, ‘This sounds good, but I can make all kinds of moral arguments for K–12, higher education, reducing pollution, reducing crime,’” he recalls. “‘I just think you’re not going to make much headway without making the economic case for it.’”

Rolnick had just turned himself into Minnesota’s pied piper of early learning: “They
said, ‘Okay, Rolnick, write us up a white paper, the background.’ I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.”

The result was an essay, coauthored with Minneapolis Fed regional economic analyst Rob Grunewald, titled “Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return.” It was fairly arcane stuff, but its impact was dramatic. By framing the childhood development argument in terms of returns on investment, the authors hoped to appeal directly to fiscally minded members of the business community.

The essay recommends the creation of a $1.5 billion state endowment to permanently fund high-quality early learning for all 3- to 4-year-old kids from low-income households in the state. A 6 to 7 percent return on investment in AAA bonds, Rolnick argues, would yield about $90 million a year, plenty to pay for the program statewide. (Incidentally, Minnesota now spends about 40 percent of its budget on K–12 education, but less than 1 percent on preschoolers.)

Rolnick was unprepared for the massive response. “I wrote the paper, and I thought I was done,” he says. Hardly, says Todd Otis, president of St. Paul–based Ready 4 K. “He did the research and became almost a rock star of early childhood,” Otis says. “It’s been a real shot in the arm for the early childhood movement.”

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 3:42 PM 0 comments

Recommendations:
These recommendations are based on input provided by MLFCCA and MACSSA as well as information gathered by the Community Partnerships and Licensing Divisions.

1) Maintain current flexibility for counties in setting and implementing family childcare licensing and background study fees. This recommendation is based on the significant differences that exist between counties in population density, economic status of residents, local employment conditions, county administrative structures and the relationship between the availability of child care services and specific needs in the county.

2) Respond to providers' concerns related to the fees charged and the consistency of
implementing these fees by encouraging MACSSA to coordinate an informational communication piece that could be customized by each county and sent to family childcare providers that would include:

• Information about tasks and responsibilities involved in the licensing process to foster greater understanding of what providers are getting for their money(understanding the services and supports to providers, and protection for children).Some counties may choose to include the actual county costs associated with administering this process.
• A description of the process providers can use to request that licensing fees be reduced and/or waived in applicable counties.
• A summary of the fees charged for various aspects of the licensing process, including whether the background study fee covers all applicable individuals in the household, or is a per-person fee; whether the fees paid cover a one- or two year licensing period; whether there is a change of premise fee; and whether the county has a process to reduce or waive fees.
• A description of options available to providers for payment of licensing fees including, but not limited to, allowing providers to pay for a two-year license in annual installments; accepting credit card payments; allowing providers to pay the applicant fees on an installment basis for up to one year; and allowing providers receiving child care assistance payments from the state to have the fee deducted fromm their payments for up to one year. Counties would be reimbursed by the state forr fees collected in this manner.
• Information on Child Care Resource & Referral services available in the county, including resources which may assist providers with licensing and background study fees.

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• Clifford’s Website
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• Clifford Teacher Guide
• Clifford Parents Guide

Kids love reading about Clifford's adventures. Build on that natural enjoyment with these teaching plans for specific Clifford books. And Happy Birthday to the Big Red Dog!

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 7:26 PM 0 comments

The truth behind the Valentine legends is unknown, but it remains a popular holiday to share sentiment. You can share the fun of Valentine's Day with the children in your care by finding some craft ideas and fun thing to do at some of my favorite online resources:

• Valentines Day coloring pages.
• Kids Domain and valentines cards to color
• DLTK’s Crafts
• Enchanted Learning
• KinderArt
• Child Fun Family Website
• Kids Turn Central
• Home School Zone
• Apples4theTeacher
• ABC Teach
• Amazing Moms
• Family Fun
• And more links at About.com

// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 3:55 PM 0 comments

Posted on Thu, Feb. 02, 2006
"State must make early childhood investments a
priority."
KELLY DORAN

During a speech in Hong Kong near the end of his China trade mission late last year, Gov. Tim Pawlenty expressed his amazement at the "scope" of China's rise to economic superpower status. Then, in an apparent moment of sober revelation, Pawlenty reportedly proclaimed that it is about time "for our country to get its rear in gear."

It's hard to imagine how Minnesota's governor could be so seemingly blindsided by what business leaders and policy experts have been warning of throughout the past several years — the global economy is on the move, and in order to maintain our competitive edge and grow Minnesota's economy, we need to have a vision for our future that includes investing in education like never before, in particular early childhood education.

If there is one direction in education toward which Minnesota should move, it is reforming our education system and ensuring every child in Minnesota has at least one year of education before entering kindergarten. Study after study has proven that early childhood education is an almost guaranteed way to ensure greater success later in life. Whether our goal is to increase the graduation rate of our high school seniors, close the achievement gap between white students and students of color, or increase the number of our high school graduates who go on to earn a college degree, there is no greater investment we can make than in early childhood education. According to recent studies, investments in early childhood education can even lead to less crime and decreased welfare payments.

Leaders across the country are taking note. Take a drive down Interstate 35 to Iowa, where the governor and Legislature have dedicated more than $75 million for early childhood initiatives over two years. Head further south, and Arkansas' Republican governor has passed two tax increases for such an investment, while two other conservative states — Oklahoma and Georgia — provide free state-paid preschool for every 4-year-old child.

Here at home, Art Rolnick of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, hardly a liberal think tank, touts investments in early childhood education and insists such spending offers the greatest return on investment available to government.

Yet, unfortunately, under Pawlenty's administration, support for early childhood education initiatives like Head Start has been cut by many millions of dollars. And though early childhood education has both proven results and unparalleled returns, we nowdedicate only 0.5 percent of our state budget toward this investment. If the CEO in the business world suggested investing such a minuscule amount in a proven high-rate-of-return investment, he or she would be fired.

In the meantime, as the governor and lawmakers gear up for the new year and new session, debates about whether to extend the school year and reorganize how we pay teachers have occupied our public discourse. And while these are fine debates worth having, we need to have a broader debate and ensure we are building the necessary foundation for our children to be successful and seize the opportunities of a global economy.

What the governor witnessed in China was a society that has a clear vision, is focused on its future, and has made purposeful and unprecedented investments in education infrastructure. China has more than doubled its number of college students in the past five years to 14 million, the most in the world. It is producing eight times as many graduate engineers as the U.S. Chinese government officials recently announced to business leaders around the world that the country will significantly increase its investment in education as a percentage of the country's GDP.

China's potential to overtake the American economy is real, and it could happen in our lifetime if we don't prepare our children and our economy for what lies ahead and ensure we can compete.

A Chinese proverb reads, "The person who doesn't worry about the future will soon be worrying about the present." It's time to set aside politics and do the right thing.

Doran of Eden Prairie is a DFL candidate for governor.