Tuesday, February 2, 2016

What's going on with early ed in the Governor's budget? (including a note on Quality K)

I had sent out last week that there seemed to be some sort of merger taking place with some of the early ed accounts in Governor Baker's budget. Here's what DESE has on that:

Early Education Quality Improvement (3000-1020)
  • $33,396,638 in House 2 (line item consolidation and $1M increase)
  • consolidates (all 3000 accounts): (-1000)Dept of Early Ed and Care Admin--licensing staff ($6,754,471); (-3060) Supportive and TANF Childcare ($600,000); (-4060) Child Care Access--Inclusive Preschool Learning Grants ($9,019,276); (-5075) Universal Pre-K grants ($7,400,000); (-6075) Early Childhood Mental Health ($750,000); (-7050) Services for Infants and Parents [grants for educator quality and QRIS] ($7,872,890)
  • the argument is to "recognize, align, and articulate" investment in quality improvement; to focus multiple grants and funding streams to a common goal; and "better document the need for additional funding" (!)
Early Literacy (7010-0031)
  • $4,529,410 in House 2
  • consolidates: (3000-7070) Reach Out and Read ($1M); (7009-6400) Gateway Cities ELL ($1.2M); (7010-0020) Bay State Reading Institute ($400,000); (7010-0033) Literacy Programs ($1,929,410)
  • "to focus existing literacy funding on scalable programs that are proven to improve grade 3 and 4 ELA proficiency, especially for high needs children and ELL"
  • funded through DESE but managed jointly with Early Ed
Quality K (7030-1002)
  • $18,589,713 in House 2
  • managed out of DESE, as now, but grant to be jointly developed with Early Ed
  • "will now be distributed to all communities that have tuition-free, full-day kindergarten"
  • communities that apply will get $350 per pupil for non-fee students "if their programs meet quality standards" (there were standards required previously, as well)

No comments: