MICHIGAN CHILD CARE TASK
FORCE
MINUTES FOR DECEMBER 5,
2001 MEETING
State of Michigan Library, Lansing, MI
Minutes by Barbara Roth, Consultant, Early Childhood and
Parenting
Programs, Michigan Department of Education
PLEASE
NOTE: The JANUARY
MEETING DATE and ROOM are CHANGED to Wednesday, January 9,
2002; 9:30 a.m. - noon. (The SECOND WEDNESDAY in JANUARY.),
State of Michigan Library, Lansing in THE FORUM (the
auditorium on the 1st floor).
The meeting was called to
order at 9:35 a.m. Each person gave a brief
self-introduction.
Barbara Roth gave an
update from the Department of Education and introduced
the new consultant to Early Childhood and Parenting
Programs, Judy Levine. Barbara gave an update on the State
School Aid Budget, and pointed out that the Fiscal Year
2002/03-budget would be decided by the Legislature and
Governor next spring. The current year Michigan School
Readiness competitive grant program is being cut, and
programs have received letters about reporting a count day
in order to use the unused funds to accommodate the cut.
Finally, the Federally Funded 21st Century Community
Learning Centers grant program is being devolved to the
states and will be administered through the Department of
Education.
Steve Manchester reported
on House Bills, 4617 and 4619, which were unanimously
defeated in the Senate last week. (The House had passed
these bills unanimously in May.) Senator Hammerstrom had
asked that the votes by which these bill were defeated be
reconsidered and that the reconsideration be postponed. The
Senate agreed to Hammerstrom's request. Steve said that he
expected the Senate will not reconsider these bills but,
instead, refer them back to Senator Hammerstrom's committee.
Susan Safford from Representative Pan Godchaux's office
suggested that the diametrically opposite, unanimous votes
in the Senate and House might have happened because of
political positioning by legislators who will run for new
legislative seats next year. Term limits and redistricting
after the census have created an unusual number of elections
that pit sitting legislators against other sitting
legislators. Susan suggested that individuals contact the
members of the Senate with their views about HBs 4617/19.
Steve also reported that
DCIS interprets playground equipment rules in a way that
seems to cause confusion. Senator Hammerstrom is
considering the introduction of a bill that would affect all
child care programs when they install new playground
equipment and also clarify any confusion arising under the
current statute and DCIS rules.
A presentation was made
by Carol Zimmer from ZimmerFish on the "BE THEIR HERO FROM
AGE ZERO" campaign. This campaign was commissioned by
some of the intermediate school districts (ISDs) that
received ASAP-PIE grants. Other school districts supported
media buys once they saw the ads produced by ZimmerFish.)
The Michigan Ready to Succeed Partnership administered the
process that hired ZimmerFish to produce the media
campaign.
The Goal of the campaign is
to motivate the culture of Michigan to understand the
importance of both 0-5 brain development and early childhood
experiences. The primary target is all men and women in the
state &endash; the culture of Michigan, with secondary
targets being specific demographic groups within the
culture. A message of the campaign is, "As a culture
everything we do in a child's life 0-5 matters."
A three step process was
used in the development of the campaign:
1) Situation
Analysis
2) Strategic Thinking
Document with Goals & Objectives
3) Creative
Brief
The official campaign ran
Oct. 4 &endash; Nov. 11 and utilized T.V and radio ads along
with billboards. (The billboards will remain up through
December.) Intermediate School District's are provided with
customized templates & graphic CD's. Ms. Zimmer played
the radio and TV spots used in the campaign for the Task
Force.
Pre- and post-campaign polls
were used to evaluate the campaign's impact. Questions such
as "Do you recall seeing/hearing any recent advertisements
about early childhood development? If yes, what " and "Can
you complete the following phrase, "Be Their Hero . . ." The
polls indicated that over a six week period 15.2 percent of
Michigan's population became familiar with "Be their hero
from age zero," a result that media experts consider very
good.
Phase Two of the campaign
will look at what can be done to change behavior once folks
learn the message. Brand identity for a culture change is
the goal of the media campaign. This campaign might become
an umbrella under which the whole state can promote good
early childhood development. Participating ISD's receive
various materials using the "Be their Hero . . ." theme to
promote their local ASAP-PIE programs. The need now is for
funding for Phase II, perhaps partnering with other early
childhood campaigns to raise funds.
Steve Manchester reported
on Senate Bill 817, which was introduced November 6.
This bill would make it easier and quicker for FIA to
declare people not in compliance with the social contract
they've signed. It also permits FIA to require welfare
recipients to be involved for up to 40 per week in FIA
approved work, study or care giving activity. Currently, if
a client (called a "customer" by FIA) is notified that they
are out of compliance with their social contract, they have
their budget reduced by 25 percent, then after 4 months, the
customer is cut from the roles if the situation is not
corrected. The bill would give 10 days to fix the problem
before the assistance is cut for one month. This bill passed
the Senate last Wednesday (November 28). Yesterday (December
4) an agreement with FIA was reached and amendments were
added, requiring FIA to determine if there is good cause to
cut assistance. New language allows FIA to require up to 40
hours of required activity (work, training, etc.) each week,
up from the current 30 hours per week. A large concern for
opponents of this bill is the low availability of child care
and transportation for the "customers." This bill is in the
House Committee on Family and Children Services (the bill
was passed by the Committee on December 6 and the full House
on December 12; it went to the Governor for his signature on
December 13).
Jean Doss from Capitol
Services, Inc., presented her views on effective advocacy
(Capitol Services, Inc. is a multi-client lobbying
firm). Before discussing advocacy, Jean pointed out that
FIA & the Michigan Department of Career Development are
jointly involved with people on welfare, making it sometimes
difficult for the client when the two state agencies
disagree about what the client should do to qualify for
benefits.
Child Care is at the heart
of much that the state deals with, but not everyone realizes
this. Jean shared a handout on tips for effective advocacy.
She also recommended the Michigan Public Policy Handbook,
newly published by the Michigan Non-Profit Association.
Highlights from her presentation on effective advocacy
include:
o Be organized,
focused, unified;
o Remember that it took 16 years to get a seat belt law
passed in Michigan and our issues will take time
also;
o Know your senator & representative, invite them to
your programs at least 1 time a year
o Do your homework &endash; know what specific, narrow
item that is achievable, know the political history
o Know that state agency (department) heads are also very
powerful
o Legislators are frustrated with vague societal
problems, they need to know what to do &endash;
specifics, what to vote on or not
o Divide tasks, one person doesn't have to do
everything
o Real Power is when the legislators know the advocate on
a first name basis
o Vote in primary elections (so few vote in primaries
that it's like voting 7 times!) and if you are a
Republican in a Democratic area, vote for the best
Democratic candidate (or the reverse in Republican
strongholds).
The agenda items,
reauthorization of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families) and NAEYC/Universal Preschool were tabled until
the January meeting.
The Task Force
Communications Network has: 738 email, 138 snail mail for a
total of 876.
The meeting adjourned at
noon.
NEXT MONTH'S
GUEST SPEAKER: TONY
DEREZINSKI, Director of Government Relations, Michigan
Association of School Boards. Mr. Derezinski will discuss
MASB's new policy statement about early childhood education.
Also, he will discuss ways in which Michigan's boards of
education, which oversee K-12 and intermediate school
districts, can participate in building a system of high
quality early childhood education and care.
ALSO:
In MARCH (March 6), TOM WATKINS, STATE SUPERINTENDENT of
PUBLIC INSTRUCTION will be our guest speaker.
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.
o This message is made possible, in part, by generous
support from the Frey Foundation of Grand Rapids.
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