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Archive for the ‘MA Legislature’ Category

Senate Ways and Means Releases FY14 Budget

Posted in Dept. of Early Education and Care, MA Legislature, MA state budget on May 16, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

State HouseYesterday, the Massachusetts Senate Ways and Means Committee released its $33.9 billion budget proposal for fiscal year 2014. This proposal represents a $1.4 billion increase over FY13 spending levels, while $67.5 million less than the FY14 budget passed by the House and $904 million less than the governor’s budget proposal.

The Senate committee’s proposal includes $490 million for the Department of Early Education and Care, roughly $13 million more than the House’s budget. The committee provides $15 million for a new line item dedicated to addressing the waitlist for income-eligible early education and care. The Senate proposal however also makes cuts to Universal Pre-k, Coordinated Family and Community Engagement grants, Reach Out and Read, and Full-Day Kindergarten grants.

Strategies for Children president Carolyn Lyons issued the following statement:

“The Senate Ways and Means budget released today provides a new line item of $15 million to decrease the waitlist for early education and care for children from income eligible families. While this new line item is a step in the right direction — providing an estimated 2,000 young children with subsidies — there are currently more than 30,000 infants, toddlers, and preschoolers seeking state aid for early education programs.

(more…)

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Books, Children and Politicians

Posted in MA Legislature, Reading proficiency on May 15, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

mapoli flickr

State Representative Jennifer Benson at the Thomas C. Passios School in Lunenburg, reading “My Side of the Mountain.”
Photo: #mapoli Reading to Class

Parents aren’t the only ones reading to kids.  Take a look at #mapoli Reading To Class.  It’s a Tumblr site featuring photographs of politicians reading to children across the commonwealth. Curated by David S. Bernstein, the site features state Senator Marc Pacheco reading “The Lorax” to fifth graders at the Henry B. Burkland School in Middleborough. Attorney General Martha Coakley read “The Sneetches” to students at Malden’s Cheverus School. And there’s State Senator Jim Timilty at the Cottage Street School in Sharon reading “Interrupting Chicken” to second graders.

Massachusetts readers, is an elected official coming to read to children in your program or school? Email a photo to David Bernstein at dbernstein@phx.com , and he’ll post it on the site.

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House of Representatives Passes FY14 State Budget

Posted in Funding, MA Legislature, MA state budget on April 25, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

On April 24, the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed a $34 billion FY14 state budget, relying on funds from state reserves as well as a $500 million tax bill to support transportation.

The House budget includes $477 million for the Department of Early Education and Care. Amendments adopted to the Committee on Ways and Means budget, which had proposed a $15.8 million cut to EEC, restored $5 million to the department’s budget. These funds ensure level-funding for UPK, Head Start, and Services for Infants and Parents (Coordinated Family and Community Engagement grants). In addition, a one-time $7.5 million rate reserve for early education and care providers was funded by the House.

The final House budget includes an office of compliance management to oversee EEC procedures for ensuring child safety, as well as a special commission to assess the efficiency of early education and care services and the timely placement of children in programs. However, it cuts funding for early education access, funded across three line items, by $11.5 million which will increase the state’s wait list. Currently 30,000 children ages birth-5 are on a waiting list for a state subsidy for early education and care.

Click here for a complete listing of early education and care line items in the state budget.

The budget process now moves to the Senate Ways and Means committee, expected to release its proposal in mid-May.

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Rising Stars

Posted in MA governor, MA Legislature, Pre-kindergarten on April 23, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

sfc stars

Photo: Alessandra Hartkopf for Strategies for Children

Children are the state’s rising stars: from babies to finger-painting four year olds to third graders learning to multiply. And children from across the commonwealth have been sending multicolored stars decorated with glitter, feathers, pompoms, stickers, and paper cutouts to the State House to keep early education in the minds and hearts of legislators. Like the children, each star is original and unique.

So far this year, thousands of stars have been sent to Governor Patrick and to members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Senate. Freshmen legislators receive framed stars and a letter explaining how high quality early education and care can have a positive impact throughout children’s lives.

Children in grades K to three can also send letters marked with stars that include their handwritten messages about what they want to be when they grew up and why. One little boy wrote that he wants to grow up to be a businessman who sells “paper related products” because he admires the characters in the television show “The Office.”

Adults can participate, too. Future early educators and general supporters can customize letters urging legislators to support early education and care. More than 3,000 have been submitted thus far.

Legislators, excited to be receiving glitter-filled mail, have responded positively to Emily Levine, our executive star tracker. And sending stars is a great way for children to participate in the governmental process. So if you and your preschoolers or young school-aged children would like to help, you’ll find all materials and information about Rising Stars here.

Please keep the stars and letters coming.

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House Ways and Means Releases FY14 State Budget

Posted in Achievement gap, Dept. of Early Education and Care, MA governor, MA Legislature, MA state budget on April 11, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

State HouseYesterday, The Massachusetts House Ways and Means (HWM) Committee released its recommendations for $33.8 billion in state appropriations for the fiscal year 2014 (FY14) budget. The proposal represents a 3.88% increase in spending over FY13.

Overall funding for the Department of Early Education and Care is at $472 million, down from $488 million in FY13.

In his letter about the proposal, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Brian Dempsey states,“In the area of early education, the House proposal takes a firm stand on reforming the agencies tasked with fostering safe educational environments for our youngest citizens. We establish a special commission to examine the need for greater, affordable, quality early education and care services and to determine methods for addressing the high cost of such services.”

The HWM budget recommendation does not fund the $131 million in new investments proposed in Governor Deval Patrick’s fiscal year 2014 budget recommendation that he released in January.

 Carolyn Lyons, President and Chief Executive Officer of Strategies for Children, issued the following statement:

 “It is critical that we make new investments in early education to close the achievement gap. The House Ways and Means budget released today decreases funding for early education by $15.8 million. While we acknowledge and appreciate the Committee’s proposal to ensure efficiency and timely placement of children in high-quality education programs, Massachusetts has a stagnant and costly achievement gap which has remained intractable over the last decade. According to the 2012 MCAS results, 40% of Massachusetts third graders are not proficient in reading, a critical predictor of future academic success. We will not close this gap until we invest more in high-quality early education. Research shows that children from low-income families who enroll in high-quality early education and care are 40% less likely to be retained a grade or require special education, 30% more likely to graduate high school and twice as likely to attend a four-year college.  We look forward to working with the Legislature as the budget process continues.”

Click here for more information about the HWM Committee’s recommendations for programs administered by the Department of Early Education and Care and for other line items related to high-quality early education.

State representatives have until Friday, April 12, at 5 p.m. to file amendments to the House Ways and Means budget. The House will begin debate on the budget the week of April 22.

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OK Pre-K Prepares Children for School

Posted in MA governor, MA Legislature, MA state budget, Pre-kindergarten on April 10, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

In calling for universal access to preschool in his State of the Union address, President Obama gave a shout-out to Oklahoma as a state that has made it “a priority to educate our youngest children.” The Sooner State established a preschool program for all 4-year-olds in 1998. Today, 40,000 Oklahoma children attend its state-funded pre-kindergarten.

“Many Oklahoma children now arrive in elementary school so well prepared that some districts have overhauled their kindergarten curricula,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Like Oklahoma, the federal plan that President Obama has proposed includes quality standards such as curriculum and well-trained teachers paid at a salary comparable to K-12 teachers.

“This is not a one-size-fits-all,” Roberto Rodriguez, special assistant to the president for education policy, tells the Journal. “But we want to ensure the dollars invested at the federal level are invested in high-quality programs.”

According to the National Institute for Early Education Research, three quarters of the country’s four million 4-year-olds attend pre-kindergarten, in either a public or private setting. Only 30% are in high-quality program, the Obama administration says.

Implementing the broad pre-k program in Oklahoma has presented some challenges, the Journal reports. Some Oklahoma districts have opened pre-kindergarten classrooms in shopping centers, nursing homes and community-based early education centers, for instance, and some have delayed opening classrooms until a qualified teacher could be hired. The popular program has a wait list of 5,000 children.

One mother, Rachel Moore, tells the Journal she was “stunned” by her young son’s growth in pre-kindergarten. “I was really worried about him going into kindergarten,” she tells the newspaper. “I feel confident he’ll be ready.”

(For more information on Oklahoma’s universal pre-kindergarten program and the unconventional way it was established, read How Did OK Adopt Universal Pre-Kindergarten? And Universal Pre-K is OK in Oklahoma.)

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Corporate Leaders Support Universal Pre-K

Posted in Achievement gap, Business and economy, Funding, MA Legislature, MA state budget, Pre-kindergarten on March 28, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

John E. Pepper Jr. and James Zimmerman, two prominent corporate leaders, recently took to the pages of The New York Times to declare universal access to high-quality pre-kindergarten “not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do.”

Pepper is a former chairman and chief executive of Procter & Gamble and a former chairman of the Walt Disney Company. Zimmerman is a former chairman and chief executive of Macy’s.

“Children who attend high-quality preschool do much better when they arrive in kindergarten, and this makes an enormous difference for their later success,” they write in a Times op-ed. “The data on preschool is overwhelmingly positive. Although some studies suggest that the positive impact decreases over time, this is mainly attributable to differences in the quality of preschool and of the schooling that follows — not a deficiency in preschool itself.”

Pepper and Zimmerman cite a 2010 report from the Institute for a Competitive Workforce, a program of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which notes future savings of $2.50 to $17 for each dollar invested in high-quality early education. They cite Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman’s estimate of a 7-10% return on investment. They cite research that finds children who struggle with reading in third grade are four times less likely than other children to finish high school by 19.

“The connections from preschool to reading proficiency to high school completion — a bare-minimum requirement in today’s economy — could not be clearer,” they write. “Universally available prekindergarten is not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do. Raising lifetime wages (and thereby tax revenues) and reducing the likelihood that children will drop out of school, get involved in crime, and become a burden on the justice system more than make up for the costs of early childhood education. …

“We have spent most of our careers in business and have come to support quality prekindergarten for all children, especially those whose families cannot afford it, because we know these programs work. The only question is how to bring them to a huge scale. Our nation’s future demands it. If there ever was a nonpartisan issue, this is it.”

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Globe Endorses Governor Patrick’s Plans

Posted in Funding, MA governor, MA Legislature, MA state budget on March 27, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Momentum continues to grow in media outlets across the state including two editorials in the Boston Globe endorsing Governor Patrick’s plan to dramatically increase the commonwealth’s investment in early education by $131 million in fiscal year 2014.

On Sunday, “Patrick’s ambitious tax plan offers basis for compromise,” an editorial about the governor’s budget proposal, noted that while some on Beacon Hill are willing to put off an expansion of early education for another day, such a delay would come “at the cost of a generation of toddlers who are already falling behind their peers.”

Tuesday’s editorial, “Governor rightly pushes for earlier investment in children,” made an in-depth case, saying that the governor’s plan “to expand access to early education is a potential game-changer for poor children, working parents and even the state budget.”  The Globe also praised the governor’s plan to eliminate the wait list for state-funded early education and care, which is 30,000 names long.

The Globe called for strategic spending.   “Improving quality is essential,” the newspaper said, citing the need for qualified educators.  And “as the state ramps up this investment… it must monitor progress and demand results.”

Massachusetts is ready to expand its commitment to research-based investment in young children. The state has strong early education programs and practices as well as an eagerness to improve. Now all it needs is a substantial investment that offers a seat at the preschool table to more of the commonwealth’s children.

Massachusetts readers, please contact your legislators today and ask them to invest in high-quality early education in the FY14 state budget.

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Early Education Makes News

Posted in MA governor, MA Legislature, MA state budget, Pre-kindergarten, Reading proficiency, tagged , , , on March 25, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

High-quality early education – and efforts to expand it – continue to generate headlines in media outlets across Massachusetts. Here’s the latest round-up:

Patrick’s ambitious tax plan offers basis for compromise
The Boston Globe, editorial, March 24, 2013

Our View: “Investment, not consumption”
The (New Bedford) Standard-Times, editorial, March 22, 2013

Clear case for early childhood funding
Boston Business Journal, op-ed by Paul O’Brien, former CEO, New England Telephone, and Arnold Hiatt, former president, CEO and chairman, StrideRite Corp., March 22, 2013

Slow drive to early ed reform
Cape Cod Times, Sean Gonsalves column, March 21, 2013

New Jersey pre-k holds lessons for Mass.
CommonWealth Magazine online, March 21, 2013

Early ed. chief sees “good chance” for education investments
State House News Service, March 21, 2013

Education push gets backing  
Boston Globe, March 20, 2013

NJ pre-k holds important lessons for MA
Boston Globe op-ed by W. Steven Barnett, director, National Institute of Early Education Research, March 20, 2013 (more…)

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How NJ Expanded Early Education and Narrowed the Achievement Gap

Posted in MA governor, MA Legislature, MA state budget, Pre-kindergarten, Research on March 21, 2013 | 6 Comments »

David Sciarra at State House event

David Sciarra at State House event. (Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children)

In 1998, in the landmark Abbott v. Burke school finance ruling that the New York Times called “the most significant education case” since Brown v. Board of Education, the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered the state to provide high-quality pre-kindergarten in 31 districts with the largest concentrations of low-income families. Fifteen years later, New Jersey has built a nationally recognized, large-scale system of early education that embeds quality across the private and public settings where young children learn. The latest report from a longitudinal study of the program finds substantial benefits that persist through fifth grade.

The New Jersey experience carries lessons for states across the country, but has particular resonance here in Massachusetts, which has focused its early education policy on improving quality throughout a mixed delivery system that includes public school pre-kindergarten, community-based centers, Head Start and family child care.

This was the message two New Jersey leaders delivered at a standing-room-only State House briefing yesterday attended by more than 50 legislators, legislative staff and educators. It was the message W. Steven Barnett, director of the National Institute of Early Education Research, delivered in Washington yesterday when he released fifth grade results from the longitudinal study of children who were in an Abbott class for 4-year-olds in 2004-5. NIEER found a 10-20% narrowing of the achievement gap for children who had one year in an Abbott preschool and a narrowing of 20-40% for children who had two years of preschool. (more…)

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