US – Federal funds to give babies a head start

Program for infants, toddlers will create 20 jobs in Salem area

Low-income families with infants and toddlers and pregnant women can soon take part in early childhood programs not previously offered in the Salem area.

Early Head Start, a program to serve children from birth to 3 years old, will take off for the first time in the Mid-Valley, thanks to federal stimulus funds.

The arrival of Early Head Start in Salem comes at a time when any kind of infant and toddler services are scarce and expensive, as reported in December in the Statesman Journal series Raising a Community: The Gap of Good Intentions in School Readiness.

Before the federal funds came in, Early Head Start programs were serving about 3 percent of eligible families in Oregon; none were in Salem. The now-expected stimulus funds will bring the number of eligible families served to about 6 percent.

The programs will create 40 new jobs in the Mid-Valley and provide early education and care for 150 children.

“We all know there’s a huge need in our community for services for infants and toddlers and their families,” said Sue Miller, the executive director of Family Building Blocks, which will run one of the Early Head Start programs. “We are just thrilled that we’re going to be able to serve more than we’ve ever served before.”

Early Head Start is designed as a precursor to the federally funded program Head Start, which serves 3- and 4-year-olds.

The funds were awarded to Family Building Blocks and the Oregon Child Development Coalition, which serves migrant children and families.

Family Building Blocks is a relief nursery that provides services to high-risk families with children who are 6 weeks to 5 years old. Family Building Blocks aims to prevent child abuse and neglect by providing early childhood education in classrooms and through home visits.

The Oregon Child Development Coalition offers early childhood education and services to children of migrant and seasonal working families ages 6 weeks to 5 years in seven Oregon counties. It currently runs programs in Woodburn and Silverton, and will open its first Salem location in two weeks.

Marion County Circuit Judge Pamela Abernethy, a Family Building Blocks board member, has been a longtime advocate of early childhood programs.

“The science that Early Head Start’s based on is designed to enhance first relationships, and for parents to learn how to have loving, reciprocal relationships with their child,” Abernethy said.

The Early Head Start program will be operated out of Family Building Blocks’ West Salem location, called Gracie’s Place. Families can begin enrolling in April, with services set to begin in May or June.

Because of federal program guidelines, only families who live in South Salem and the neighborhoods around Washington and Highland elementary schools in northeast Salem will be eligible to apply for the Family Building Blocks Early Head Start program. The boundaries must align with the Salem-Keizer School District’s Head Start programs, which serve those areas. Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency, another Head Start provider, serves the remainder of the Salem-Keizer areas.

“The service area was dictated by the Early Head Start office,” Miller said. “We didn’t have much influence in that.”

Infants and toddlers will travel by bus — supervised by a staffer — to the West Salem location.

Family Building Blocks received federal funds of $693,000, about half of which is for start-up, to serve 60 families. Early Head Start will serve 10 pregnant women through home visits.

The new Early Head Start will create 20 new jobs. Family Building Blocks is posting six of those jobs, including a program manager and classroom teachers.

The Oregon Child Development Coalition’s Early Head Start program will serve 64 migrant and seasonal families in a rented northeast Salem location at Lancaster and Hayesville drives, said executive director Donalda Dodson. About 20 people have been hired at the Salem location. Dodson said the coalition eventually plans to be located on the Chemeketa Community College campus.

The coalition received $4.1 million in stimulus funds to serve 352 children in migrant Early Head Start programs in Oregon; about $1.16 million was funded for the Salem center, Dodson said.

By May or June, during the next harvest season, the Oregon Child Development Coalition’s Salem location will add an additional 90 families of children ages 6 weeks to 5 years to serve families during that time. The migrant Early Head Start is set to be a year-round program.

rliao@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 589-6941

Additional Facts
Learn more
The grants received by Family Building Blocks and the Oregon Child Development Coalition were part of $11.1 million in federal grants distributed to Early Head Start programs statewide, said Dell Ford, who heads the Head Start collaboration for the state Department of Education. Eight new Early Head Start programs were created.

The funds established openings for 879 children in Early Head Start programs, which includes tribal and migrant worker programs.

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20100209/NEWS/2090336/1001/news

US – Pennsylvania’s Governor Rendell’s Education Budget Continues Strategic Investments to Ensure an Educated, Prepared Workforce

Additional $354 million Investment in Basic Education will Help Continue Academic Gains, Ease Burden of Local Property Taxes

Citing the academic gains Pennsylvania students have made because of the state’s continued investments in quality education, Governor Edward G. Rendell today called for a $354.8 million increase in the state’s basic education funding to ensure every student in every school has the necessary resources to learn.

The increase will bring to $5.9 billion the state’s total commitment to basic education and mark the third year of a multi-year commitment by the Governor and the General Assembly to increase the state’s share of education funding.

“We know what works to increase student achievement: targeted classroom investments and the vision to build on those investments even in the toughest economic times,” Governor Rendell said.
Today, nearly three-quarters of Pennsylvania’s students are testing on grade level in reading and math, compared to slightly more than half who were performing on grade level in 2002. This marked academic progress has been driven by school districts that have received the most significant increases in state resources since 2002. These districts have seen an average 37 percent increase in the proportion of students performing at grade level in reading and math.

In the past seven years, Governor Rendell has made education a top priority for Pennsylvania, championing new investment and greater accountability as critical to the commonwealth’s economic development strategy. Working with the General Assembly, he has built the nation’s best early childhood infrastructure, enacted a school funding formula based on reaching funding adequacy in every district and helped districts raise student achievement with targeted investments in proven classroom initiatives.

As a result, Pennsylvania is now a real investor in the state’s public schools, Education Secretary Gerald L. Zahorchak said.

“Pennsylvania’s unwavering commitment to adequately funding our schools has had a dramatic impact on student achievement, helping us earn the distinction of being the only state in the nation to show sustained improvement in reading and math at every grade level since 2002,” Zahorchak said.

The budget includes a funding formula for basic education subsidies that compares each district’s adequacy target as identified by the General Assembly’s costing out study to its actual spending. The difference between these two figures is the district’s “adequacy gap.”

The funding formula, first used in fiscal 2008-09, will phase in $2.6 billion in new state funding to help fill the adequacy gap, with an emphasis on aiding school districts that have the highest local tax levels and the greatest needs. The 2010-11 investment of $354.8 million will enable the state to reach 41 percent of its adequacy funding target.

The pressures faced by school districts will result in local property tax hikes unless the state continues its commitment to close the adequacy gap, the Governor said.

“On average, it would take a 40-percent increase in local property taxes to generate the same investment as the state will contribute over the course of our multi-year funding formula,” the Governor said. “When the state pays its fair share, school districts can keep property tax increases to a bare minimum.”

The property tax burden is further alleviated through the relief provided by gaming revenues, which have generated sufficient revenue to provide $1.7 billion in property tax relief since 2008. In fiscal 2010-11, an additional $613.7 million in state revenues will go to relieve citizens of a portion of their local school property tax burden.

In addition to increases in the basic education subsidy, the Governor and the General Assembly have targeted an additional $2.5 billion over the past seven years in funds for specific targeted programs, including Pre-K Counts, Accountability Block Grants, Educational Assistance Program and Dual Enrollment. The 2010-11 budget proposal continues funding these initiatives.

“While my budget plan reflects the difficult choices that must be made in a tough economy, it also recognizes that a quality public education system is a fundamental tool for economic development,” Governor Rendell said. “The young people we teach today will be the workforce that sustains and strengthens Pennsylvania in the years ahead.”

Early Childhood Education

Over the past seven years, Pennsylvania has built a world-class system of early childhood education resources. This effort stems from the recognition that investments made in the earliest years of a child’s development have immense educational, social and economic benefits over the course of the child’s life.

The 2010-11 education budget continues Pennsylvania’s commitment to providing affordable, high-quality early childhood learning opportunities.

Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts will receive $85.9 million to enable approximately 11,800 3- and 4-year-olds to reap the proven benefits of quality pre-kindergarten programs and allow more families to have access to full-day programs.

The budget also provides $38.7 million in state supplemental assistance for federally funded Head Start programs, allowing 5,743 children who are most at risk of academic failure to benefit from comprehensive early learning services.

Higher Education

Governor Rendell said Pennsylvania also must sustain its commitment to higher education in a struggling economy, noting the nation’s fiscal crisis has made it even more difficult for families to afford college tuition.

“The more we can do to adequately fund our public colleges and universities, the less likely those institutions will have to resort to tuition increases,” the Governor said.
His 2010-11 budget for higher education provides:

$282 million for Pennsylvania’s 14 community colleges;

$503 million for the 14 universities in the State System of Higher Education; and

$688 million for the four state-related universities – Penn State University, the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University and Lincoln University.

Teacher Professional Development and Supports

Governor Rendell’s education budget recognizes the importance of quality teaching in student achievement, providing $30 million in high-quality tools and supports for teachers, including:
$7 million for coaches to help teachers use technology to bring instruction to life in the classroom;
$13.5 million for “Science: It’s Elementary” to train teachers to prepare the scientists of the future;
$4.5 million for online model curriculum, including research-proven instructional strategies and lesson plans; and
$5 million for tools to help teachers identify and help struggling students.

Zahorchak said the Governor’s ongoing commitment to adequately funding education at all levels will ensure Pennsylvania’s students continue to have solid opportunities for learning at every level – from the first day of pre-kindergarten to the day they earn their college

US – Early years too important to cut Parent As Teacher (PAT) funds

Many of our children enter school behind before they even start. More than one third of children entering kindergarten lack basic readiness language skills such as being able to tell a story or knowing words flow from left to right on the page. Follow-up studies show the majority of these children are still lagging behind five years later.

One of the most sensible approaches to this problem is found in the Missouri Parents as Teachers Program. This program was founded here in Missouri, received strong bipartisan support from leadership including Kit Bond, Matt Blunt and Jay Nixon. Parents as Teachers now extends throughout the country and worldwide. It is based on the realization that early childhood experience is critical to developing readiness for school and that there is much parents can do to make a difference for during those years. Among all the education issues the Tribune has discussed and supported over the years, there is none more important to lifetime academic success than what happens at home during the years between birth and the beginning of school.

We have known about this since the work of theorists such as Sigmund Freud and his daughter, Anna, beginning more than 100 years ago. In recent years, modern neurobiology has shown that brain structures continue to grow and develop for several years after birth. More importantly, studies also show that children whose families have participated in the Parents as Teachers program do better in school.

Parents as Teachers is a voluntary program administered within our school system. It provides a home visitor well-trained in child development. This person visits at intervals, helping parents understand the level of their child’s learning, what to expect next and how to use that information to provide an environment that will best help their child reach his or her full potential. It also provides simple but sophisticated screening for developmental problems, enabling children with delays or potentially serious behavioral issues to be obtain timely services when the benefit will be greatest.
The program is geared to work with families from all walks of life because all can benefit from its content. For example, almost all of our pediatricians with young children have enrolled their own families. Conversely, other participant families are highly vulnerable and still others come from frank poverty.

I understand the program here now serves about 3,400 families, reaching well more than half of all infants and preschool children in our community. The recent budget cutback of 18 percent and a proposed additional 10 percent budget cut for the program will necessarily eliminate a proportionate loss of service to families.
There is no doubt in my mind that the returns from the Parents as Teachers program infinitely outweigh the costs. Funding needs to be promptly reinstated and further cuts denied. This is not a time to be penny wise and pound foolish.

Michael Cooperstock is a physician with the Department of Child Health at University of Missouri Health Care.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2010/feb/09/early-years-too-important-to-cut-pat-funds/

US – Arthur Rolnick pleased with Fed’s role in helping to form public policies

Arthur Rolnick, who will retire in July after 40 years at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Here is the second part of an edited conversation with Rolnick, in which he also talks about the impressive return for society when it invests in early childhood education.

Through taking a few economics classes, “I saw how the math could help me understand the real world,” Rolnick, the Minneapolis Fed’s director of research for the past 25 years, told MinnPost. “I was always interested in public policy and I realized … whether it was issues of poverty or business cycles or unemployment, economics had something to say about how we design public policy.”

On Monday, in the first part of his interview with MinnPost, he credited his colleagues at the Fed for raising concerns about the “Too Big to Fail” philosophy as far back as the late 1970s.
Here is the second part of an edited conversation with Rolnick, in which he also talks about the impressive return for society when it invests in early childhood education.

MinnPost: Has the public’s understanding of economics changed?

Arthur Rolnick: When I started at the Fed, very few people knew anything about the Federal Reserve. Starting with … the severe recessions in the in ’80s with interest rates up to 20 percent — and what Paul Volker [Fed chairman, 1979-87] went through to get inflation down leading to many years of healthy growth — it put us on the map. And media coverage on business expanded dramatically over this period.
While there is still a lot of misunderstanding about what the Federal Reserve does — and comments you hear from Congress reflect that — people know about the Federal Reserve. They know we’re the central bank; they have a sense that we influence interest rates and the economy. Increased awareness is a double-edged sword … How sophisticated that knowledge is, is questionable. The Fed gets blamed for things that we have nothing to do with, what we’ve done or what our powers are.

MP: What makes economic research so interesting to you?

AR: I started out as a mathematician but was frustrated because I couldn’t see how I could use it in the real world until a mentor encouraged me to take few economics classes. I saw how the math could help me understand the real world. I was always interested in public policy and I realized … whether it was issues of poverty or business cycles or unemployment, economics had something to say about how we design public policy. So I view economics as a tool to help better civilization, better the United States, better world economies, and it gave me a higher mission to strive for.
I came to the University of Minnesota for my Ph.D. because Walter Heller [chief economic adviser to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson] was there. Walter was a liberal Keynesian economist, very influential in the idea of using economics to influence public policy. He was also a good friend of Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago. And he’d bring Freidman in, and he would also talk about using economics to influence public policy, but from a much more conservative point of view. So I got a great education, and I’ve drawn from both sides to try to improve public policy.

MP: What will you be doing at the Humphrey Institute?

AR: Over the last eight or 10 years, I’ve gotten very interested in the economics of early childhood education. I realized economics had a lot to say about both that field.

There’s research that shows if kids are far behind in kindergarten, on average they can’t catch up, and they are more likely to drop out. If they drop out of high school … a high percent of those kids are not very successful in our society and a high percentage end up committing crimes, with all the problems that brings. But if you get kids ready for kindergarten, they’re much more likely to graduate from high school, get a job, pay taxes …

The benefits are huge, not only to the child but to society. We did some calculations and found a 16 percent inflation-adjusted annual return, if you invest well in high-quality early-childhood education. That research influenced some business people to create the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation, which has raised $20 million. We’ve created a parent-awareness rating system for early-childhood ed program and opened up a pilot school in St. Paul with scholarships for at-risk kids and parents.

What I’m hoping to do at the U is raise another $15 million to $20 million to do a pilot in Minneapolis, and something similar in my hometown of Detroit. There are other cities around the country very interested in these ideas as well.

I also want to promote research in early childhood development. Neuroscientists are just scratching the surface. But they’re finding that much of brain development occurs from age zero to 3 and that environment matters. If you look at families in poverty — a teenage parent raising a kid where neglect is a big issue — we know how to fix that. We know with mentors we can make that environment much better, but we need more research. We need to know how this occurs and how best to intervene.

MP: Have you read “Freakonomics”?

AR: I haven’t read it cover to cover. I’ve read bits and pieces. I wouldn’t call it the deepest economics. There is not fundamental economic theory underlying it. But I think [co-author] Steven Levitt is very good at using basic economic principles to explain some real-world experiences that economists can explain. He always gets me thinking when I hear him talk. I think he’s a very clever, very imaginative economist.

MP: What are you reading now?

AR: My wife gave me this amazing book, written by a Bloomington cop, Richard Greelis, called “Cop Book.” It’s an incredible read. He’s a very good writer, and he gives you another side of this world, this life that you normally don’t see. And, of course, I’m interested in the economics of crime because that gets into the economics of early childhood development.

http://www.minnpost.com/bradallen/2010/02/09/15724/arthur_rolnick_pleased_with_fed’s_role_in_helping_to_form_public_policies

US – Thomas & Friends is top preschool toy brand, says retail survey

This is the ninth year the license has topped the category

Thomas & Friends is the number-one license in the preschool category in North America, according to figures published by NDP EPoS Retail Tracking Service. This is the ninth year Thomas & Friends
has held top position in the industry survey, which measures the sale of toys and games across major retailers, demonstrating the unrivaled popularity of the global brand as it enters its 65th anniversary year.

In January, it was announced that Thomas & Friends ranked number-one preschool toy property in the UK, as well, for the 10th year in a row.

While overall toy industry sales in North America decreased slightly (-.08%), total Thomas & Friends preschool and infant sales increased by close to 4%. With its popularity and appeal stronger than ever, HIT Entertainment, owner of the Thomas & Friends brand, is poised to expand product offerings in time for this year’s 65th anniversary.

Fisher-Price, the brand’s global master licensee, is launching a portable Take ‘n’ Play range, an array of preschool items, and Trackmaster sets. Mega Brands will release a line of construction toys in the fall. Additionally, several new Thomas DVD titles, in CGI, will release in 2010 along with a special “Best of Thomas” anniversary edition, which will hit stores in June.

http://www.kidstodayonline.com/article/CA6718472.html

US – Gift packs for new parents focus on reading

Parents whose babies are born at Griffin Hospital will be going home with more than a bundle of joy.

They also will be taking home informational kits donated by the Valley’s School Readiness Councils and Discovery Projects.

The kits are enclosed in a plastic carrying case. They include a soft cloth first book, “Busy Baby”; two informational sheets, “Why Read to My Baby” and “Important Resources For You and Your New Baby”; two guides, A Parent Resource Guide to Licensed Child Care Home Providers in the Valley, and Lower Naugatuck Valley Child Care Resource Guide, and a booklet about child development.

A presentation of 1,000 of the kits was made Monday in the lobby of Griffin Hospital’s Childbirth Center.

Pamela Lorenzo, chairwoman of the Early Childhood Task Force of the Valley Council for Health and Human Services, said, “We’re thrilled and honored to do this for this wonderful hospital.”

She said it was “a new partnership” between Griffin Hospital and the Valley’s School Readiness Councils.

The gift was from the Readiness Councils and Discovery Projects of Ansonia, Derby, Seymour and Shelton.

The William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund of Hamden also contributed to the project.

Matching funds from the Valley boards of education and municipalities, Valley United Way, Valley Community Foundation, and Training, Education and Manpower also were donated.

Griffin Hospital President and CEO Patrick Charmel thanked the council representatives at the ceremony for the kits.

“We all talk about early childhood development, but this is really early,” Charmel quipped. “We appreciate your thinking of us and we hope it’s going to be a long partnership.”

Also on hand for the ceremony were Luanne Miller, acting director of the Childbirth Center, and childbirth education coordinator Shelly Taylor.

Agnes Luberti of Derby, who gave birth to twin daughters, Emma and Isabella, at Griffin Hospital Friday, was thrilled with the gift packs.

She and her husband, Michael, have a son, Joseph, 2.

She said Joseph “absolutely adores books” and would be interested in the baby books when she brings them home.

Luberti, who teaches first grade at Turkey Hill School in Orange, said, “There’s nothing better than to teach literacy.”

For information about the four Readiness Councils, go to www.preschooltools.org, a site maintained by the Early Childhood Task Force, or log onto a school system’s Web site.

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/02/09/news/valley/b2-debabykits_provided_art.txt

Canada – Universal childcare is no panacea

There are minimal long-term benefits associated with participation in formal childcare

One frequently discussed policy proposal in the area of childcare is the creation of a “universal system.” This would provide daycare to every family who desires it but with government – taxpayers – picking up most of the tab.

Proponents of this approach often present universal childcare subsidization as a wise “investment in human capital.” They assert universal daycare can bring long-term benefits to society in the form of improved performance in school, increased economic productivity in adulthood, and reduced criminality.

Unfortunately, these promises are based on a weak empirical foundation. The best available research suggests that, for most kids, there are minimal long-term benefits associated with participation in formal childcare. Far from being the social and economic panacea that some activists suggest, universal childcare is therefore an “investment” from which we cannot realistically expect to receive substantial returns.

An expensive proposition
The creation of a national, universal childcare system is an enormously expensive proposition. The estimated annual cost of such a program is $15 billion – a new tax burden of about $2,000 per family. Proponents argue that we should happily incur these costs because they represent a prudent long-term investment. To get around the objection of cost, they claim formal childcare participation at very young ages is a net economic benefit— a smart long-term strategy for promoting economic growth.

Unfortunately, an examination of the research in this area reveals the evidence surrounding the developmental impacts of childcare participation is actually quite ambiguous, and gives little support for universal daycare subsidies.

For example, universal childcare proponents correctly claim participation enhances “school readiness,” as measured by cognitive tests given to children when they enter the first grade. What they generally neglect to mention is that, for the vast majority of children, these benefits fade out almost entirely within just a few years. This fadeout effect is so strong that by the time they are ten years old, childcare participants are statistically indistinguishable from non-participants in terms of almost every measure of cognitive development.

According to one high-quality study recently conducted in the United States that made use of the rich Early Childhood Longitudinal Data set, the fadeout effect may actually be even faster. This study showed that children who participated in formal pre-kindergarten programs slightly outperformed their peers in reading and math tests at the moment of school entry. However, by the spring of first grade, these cognitive benefits faded out almost completely.

This research suggests that, after just a few years of formal education, children exposed to formal pre-kindergarten programs become virtually indistinguishable from children who have not. There is an important exception to this general rule: for children from poor families. In their case, there do appear to be benefits from childcare participation that last into adulthood. A number of carefully performed studies prove beyond a reasonable doubt that high quality preschool interventions can bring long-lasting benefits to kids from economically disadvantaged homes.

This reality should be recognized and inform policymaking. However, it does not change the fact that for the majority of children who come from middle-income families there appears to be virtually no long-term benefit associated with formal daycare.

Zero long-term impact
The policy implications seem quite clear. While subsidizing childcare for poor children may produce long-term social and economic benefits for the country, doing so for middle- and high-income families will likely have zero long-term impact on Canada’s store of “human capital.”
If promoting long-term economic growth is an objective of childcare policy, a targeted approach that provides access for poor families (through vouchers or some other means) will accomplish just as much as a system of universal subsidies. It will also do so at a small fraction of the cost of an unnecessary universal program.

Happily, this cheaper approach also has the benefit of creating universal access to childcare, by providing assistance to those who need it, while allowing those with money to choose, and pay for, whatever childcare arrangements best suits their particular needs.

As governments work to develop priorities and allocate scarce funds, they constantly face partially true, misleading and patently false claims from a wide variety of interest groups. Such groups are often determined to demonstrate why their pet project is the most deserving of government largesse. The myth that universal childcare represents a prudent long-term investment in Canada’s human capital is one of these claims. Governments should recognize this canard for what it is and dedicate scarce resources to more urgent priorities.

http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/19747