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Early Learning Challenge Action Needed!  And Other Updates

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Hi all,

It’s time to update you on a few developments on the federal front.

First up: future funding for Early Learning Challenge grants to states. Early Learning Challenge: Part Deux. As you may remember, Congress last year approved $550 million for another round of Race to the Top, and, while they encouraged a “robust early childhood component,” it is still up to the Department of Education to decide how much funding is allotted to early learning. Given the enthusiastic response by states to Round 1 funding, we think a significant portion of that appropriation must go toward Round 2 of the Challenge.

But what we’re hearing now is that there are strong, countervailing pressures to spend most of that $550 million on a competition that allows local school districts, rather than just governor’s offices, to apply for grant money. The decision is under discussion now, so we’re encouraging as much pressure as possible from Congressional delegations and governors toward the upper echelons of the White House (i.e., advisor Valerie Jarrett) and U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan as well as U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Why? System-building work is what’s needed now in states, and it can’t be done as well locally. Imagine: If each school district is left to develop its own set of standards, assessments, and data systems, that’s not a “system.” That’s a mess. That’s massive wheel reinvention, and the exact kind of inefficiency that the Challenge was designed to help states eradicate. The more likely scenario if an early learning component were tacked on to a local district competition is that a few preschool slots might be added here or there, but the chance to make lasting, seismic improvements to quality statewide would be missed. It makes no sense to bypass the opportunity capitalize on the momentum in states and start implementing a larger, more bipartisan, cohort of smart, strategic plans for state-level systems building.

To get a more palpable sense of how strong demand is in states, check out this webcast of the Capitol Hill briefing that FFYF, in partnership with BUILD as part of our work for the Early Learning Challenge Collaborative, hosted Tuesday. Leaders from North Carolina, Maryland, and Ohio spoke compellingly about their exciting plans for implementing the Early Learning Challenge  with their Round 1 awards, while Colorado, which was not selected in Round 1, explained how its plan for system-building is still unfolding—and how much it would benefit from Round 2 funding. For even more insight into what states might do, read this report that includes one-page profiles of all 37 state applicants plus an overview of thematic highlights from the competition. 

What Can You Do to Support States in Round Two? The folks in Washington need to hear from states on this issue. We need your help to sustain funding for another round of the Early Learning Challenge. If you have supportive contacts in your governor’s office, urge them to weigh in. If you can reach your congressional delegation, ask them to continue to support a state-level Early Learning Challenge. And if you hear back from either, we’d love to hear about it. Here’s a message to get your outreach going:

• The Race to the Top starts with effective early childhood education systems that deliver school ready children to K-12 systems. School districts don't have the expertise, vision, and capacity to build early childhood development systems on their own. That can only be done with multiple partners on the state level through more dedicated funding to the Early Learning Challenge.

Head Start, Early Head Start, and child care. Release of the President’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget is slated for February 13, serving as the official “starting gun” for the annual, months-long appropriations season. We’ll of course scour it instantly for FY13 requests for Head Start and child care. FFYF, together with our early childhood partners in Washington, have urged at least modest growth in these core funding streams. We’ll report back those numbers as soon as we know more.

Personal News On a personal note, I wanted to share with you my own plans to move on soon to a new career – that of professional mom. In the DC world, leaving to “spend more time with family” has become so hackneyed as to be code for something else, but in my case it’s actually true! Being the founding executive director of the First Five Years Fund has been amazing, challenging, exciting, and fulfilling, and I’ve been humbled to work alongside so many passionate, smart advocates. Four years of such excitement, however, have come at a cost most often borne by my two young sons, ages two and eight. I will likely do part-time consulting a little down the road, but first I have play dates to schedule, family dinners to cook, and scrapbooks to catch up on. I’m so encouraged by what has been accomplished by FFYF in its first four years, and will cheer from the sidelines at what it is sure to accomplish in the next four.

I’m thrilled to welcome our new DC-based Policy Director, Shiek Pal, whom I hope you will get to know better very soon, and am confident he and my successor will seamlessly take a wonderful organization to the next level of leadership. I’ll be around until March 1, and a search for a new executive director will be underway soon, so let me or Diana Rauner, President of the Ounce of Prevention Fund, know if you have any great candidates.

Sincerely,

Cornelia
 
First Five Years Fund
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