TKW Consulting

Children's rally creates romper Rotunda

Many interest groups arrive at the Minnesota capitol each year in search of money. But the ones who came to lobby for dollars on Thursday were hard to ignore.

The annual Voices for Children rally created a veritable Romper Rotunda. Nearly 1,000 children, parents and educators converged to ask lawmakers to restore cuts made to pre-kindergarten programs in the past.

The slogan "No Child Starts Behind" is a recurring theme at the annual rally, to call attention to the value of early education programs such as ECFE, Head Start and subsidized child care.

"It's an investment really because if we invest now in our earliest learners it's gonna
make a big difference for them once they are in school," Cristina Gillette told KARE 11 News.

Gillette is one of the parents who helped organize the rally, and has two children in ECFE programs in Mendota Heights.

"And it's helped them get real classroom experience," Gillette remarked.

And although she feels her own parents were great role models Gillette says the parenting education aspect of the program has been very helpful as well.

"The literature and resources they've connected me to, it's helped me to be a better parent. And getting a chance to talk to other parents, to compare notes about developmental issues, bed time, food and other things has been great."

Fighting for Dollars
Rep Nora Slawik, D-Maplewood, led cheers of "Yes We Can" at the rally.

And the president of the advocacy group known as Ready-4-K, Todd Otis, urged the crowd to keep fighting.

"If Minnesota lawmakers want to have a strong, healthy state economy tomorrow, we need to invest today in early care and education."

The investment in early education , as a concept, has fared better this session in the House than in the Senate. And neither chamber has been able to find as much cash as early ed proponents anticipated in the wake of the state's budget surplus.

As Cristina Gillette put it, "It sounded like we were gonna have a lot of money for early education and care and when the proposals came out they were far short, at least in the Senate."

"We're hoping that things will get better but we're losing confidence in our legislators." Rep Slawik heads the early childhood division of the House finance commitee, and admitted to reporters last week it hasn't been as easy convincing colleagues as she first expected.

"It's kind of like the old west," she told reporters.

"Is it a showdown? Yes." The figure of $150 million was tossed around before the 2007 session began. Last week the House DFL plan included $40 million in new money for early education.The Senate plan had fallen short of that, but on Thursday Senate Democrats offered an education finance bill that included $56 million for pre-K allowances.

A group of children who'd been at the rally later served as living visual aids at a Senate DFL news conference, giving it the feel of a daycare center or at least a large family
reunion.

Looking at the children sitting near the lecture, assistant majority leader Tarryl Clark of Saint Cloud cited the need to invest in early education.

"We don't want any child starting behind when they get to kindergarten because it's hard to be above average when starting behind," Clark told the Capitol press corps. "We'll need every single one of these kids to be ready and be a productive citizen. It's gonna be critical for our economy."

Dueling Philosophies
Clark cited a 2003 study by Federal Reserve Bank economist Art Rolnick, which calls early education programs a wise investment not just for society but from an economic development standpoint as well.

In that study Rolnick and co-author Robert Grunewald concluded, "The return on investment from early childhood development is extraordinary, resulting in better working public schools, more educated workers and less crime.

"There are skeptics who challenge the notion that the money is wisely spent. Mitch Pearlstein of the conservative think tank known as the Center of the American Experiment has often questioned the long-term effectiveness of such program on student performance.

Pearlstein told the Minneapolis Star Tribune recently, "It's difficult to replicate in mass ways the few exception programs that show those dramatic results."

In a 2004 Star-Tribune editorial Pearlstein wrote, "Despite the huge amount of money spent since the 1960s in preparing children for kindergarten and further learning, graduates of Head Start and similar programs have tended to lose, by the middle of elementary school, any scholastic progress they may have made because of earlier enrichments."

Pearlstein, long an advocate of school choice, argues the public's money is better spent in scholarship programs allowing lower income families to enroll their children in private pre-K programs. Governor Tim Pawlenty advocated the same in his State of the State address and including $29 million for early education grants in his budget plan.Democrats have warmed up to an idea of a pilot grant program, but don't want to abandon traditional child care, Head Start and ECFE.

"With 50% of our kids not ready when they get to kindergarten we know they need to do more," Sen Clark told reporters Thursday.

"If we want a well paid, high quality work force, we need to make sure that we're leaving no child behind."