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MICHIGAN
CHILD CARE TASK FORCE
Minutes taken by Richard Lower, Michigan's Children
The meeting
was called to order shortly after 9:30 a.m. Each person gave
a brief self-introduction and the group adopted the
agenda.
Early
Announcements
Bob Redmond,
Branch ISD, announced that the Michigan Association of
IntermediateSchool Administrators has created an Early
Childhood Committee. The committee is eager to join other
early childhood advocacy groups to facilitate partnerships
and work with the Ready to Succeed Media Board to continue
the Ready to Succeed media campaign.
Dan Gerrity, Allegan ISD, is changing jobs and will be
leaving the early childhood education and care world. He
believes that early childhood groups have done well and
should "stay the course."
Guest
Speaker: TOM WATKINS, State Superintendent of Public
Instruction.
Mr. Watkins
said:
o He wants to change attitudes/beliefs about education to
make it unacceptable for people to bash public education
(e.g., calling public schools government schools with a
pejorative tone)
o He rephrased a line from a Clinton inaugural speech-"there
is nothing so wrong with public schools that can not be
fixed by what is right with public schools"
o We need more engagement with the political process
o The State Board of Education could use more diversity in
terms of geographic, ethnic, and gender representation.
o The State Board's goal is to lift up all of our schools
with special emphasis on under performing schools.
o Schools are a good indicator of the community
o He listed the top 5 priorities of the State Board:
Technology; Professional Development of Teachers/Staff;
Investment in Leadership; Engaging Communities in Schools;
0-to-5 School Readiness.
o His suggestion to pause tax reductions to save programs
(e.g., after-school) was not taken so well by Governor
Engler nor the Michigan Chamber of Commerce; however, the
income tax cuts would only mean a $55 savings for the
average taxpayer.
o The new governor will face some education problems. In
particular, short term fixes that have been done in the past
have not been successful and long term plans need to be put
in place.
o He discussed an idea of redirecting money from the 12
grade year to 0 to 5 programs, supported, in part, because
many high school seniors have already been accepted to
college or know what they will do next and have enough
credits to graduate.
o Mr. Watkins talked about his 30 ideas/30 days
pamphlet.
o He suggested the use of advertising on school buses to
educate or promote messages on anti-bullying, anti-drugs,
abstinence and so on.
Q &
A:
Regarding
MEAP, he believes it is a good tool if used properly for its
intended use. It is based on state academic standards and
helps local schools judge if their curricula are in line
with state standards or way off base. Unfortunately, the
MEAP is used inappropriately as a bashing tool, a rating
tool, a Merit Scholarship and sorting mechanism. Pre-K is
extremely important because 85% of the brain is developed by
age 6 and we need to focus on children sooner. He discussed
the "Leave No Child Behind Act" and its $28.6 million for
phonics. Some people are overly concerned because they think
the literacy part of the act stresses phonics and rote
instruction too much. He feels that we should take the
federal funds and get on with providing the best education
possible within the confines of what the law
says.
UPDATES:
Steve
Manchester reminded attendees of the sign-up sheet for the
email network. He also gave an update on the K-12/School Aid
budget. ASAP-PIE, 0-3 collaboration grants, and School
Readiness/Head Start had not been included in the Governor's
recommended school aid budget. However, the Senate inserted
"place holder" language that said these three programs would
be the first to be funded if the School Aid Fund seemed
likely to grow faster than anticipated as the budget process
began. The state will make estimates of expected funds
flowing into the School Aid Fund in May. Many expect the
reviving economy to bring more money into the fund and let
the state restore the three early childhood programs. The
School Aid Fund will rebound faster than the state's General
Fund because upcoming tax cuts do not come from the school
aid revenue stream.
SBs 1165 &1166 were introduced last Thursday, 2-28-02,
regarding tax code changes and school property taxes. These
bills will provide the funding to increase the K-12
per-pupil foundation grant from $6500 to 6700. He expects
these bills to be considered later this spring. (Note: these
bills passed the Senate on March 14 and seem on a fast track
to be on the Governor's desk by March 21.)
Barb Roth of Dept. of Education announced that the change
from paper to electronic grant submission will take place on
March 15. Also, the 21st century learning grants have gone
from Federal to State controlled competitive grants.
However, already existing grants from the Feds will stay
with the Feds. The new grants will possibly start late
summer/early fall. The Department of Education is kicking
off its creation of the Michigan Math Profile. The first
Assessment meeting about this will be in March.
There are two upcoming TA (technical assistance) sessions
for the Michigan Technical Assistance Grant and the Even
Start Grant. Registration will be on the department web site
beginning March 18 and the first session will be April 19,
2002. Early Reading First Grants have gone from the Federal
level to local level: those who have Ready First are
eligible for new grants.
Mark Sullivan announced that the FIA budget for fiscal year
maintains child care funding at the same level as last year.
Mark described his recent trip to Washington, D.C., where he
joined other child advocates in visiting Capitol Hill to
speak to Congress members. They asked the Michigan
Congressional delegation for $20 Billion now instead of
forcing the child care profession to go hat in hand, as in
the past, in seeking needed public support. HB 3524 (Miller)
includes many things that children need; it deals with CCDBG
reauthorization.
Unfortunately, it has been changed. Mark and the others
asked Sen. Stabenow to take the lead in restoring some of
the original language from Miller's first version.
The March 4th for Child Care Change was successful: members
of Congress received 14,000 hits on their web sites on March
4. Mark encouraged task force members who work with child
care centers to invite state legislators to visit their
centers during the spring Legislative recess, March 21
through April 8. Centers could also invite members of
Congress to visit them during the first weeks of April.
Contact Jan Ellis at the Department of Education at
517.373.9391 for a brief overall summary of reading programs
in Michigan.
Richard
Lower
announced
the current state of the HB 4746 on Anti-Bullying policy
(Thomas): it has been tabled again. See
www.michiganschildren.org for more information.
The meeting adjourned at 11:45 am
NEXT
MEETING: Wednesday,
April 3, 2002 - 9:30 a.m. - noon, State of Michigan Library;
Lake Ontario Room, Lansing.
GUEST
SPEAKER: SHARON PARKS, Senior
Research Associate & Director, Michigan Budget and Tax
Policy Project for the Michigan League for Human Services.
Sharon will discuss TANF reauthorization, which will occur
in Congress this year. TANF, a federal funding program, is
Michigan's largest source of public child care money for low
income families.
Kristen
McDonald-Stone, Michigan Head Start Association
Lisa Brewer, Michigan 4-C Association/T.E.A.C.H.®
Co-chairs, Michigan Child Care Task Force
o Please
FORWARD THIS NOTICE TO OTHERS; we invite people to join this
email network.
o Comments, suggestions, or requests to be removed from this
list should be directed to smanchester@MiAEYC.org.
oThis message is made possible, in part, by generous support
from the Frey Foundation of Grand Rapids.
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