Minutes
submitted by Mark Sullivan, Michigan 4C Association
and slightly edited by Steve Manchester, Michigan
AEYC
Co-chairs
Kristen McDonald-Stone and Lisa Brewer called the meeting to
order shortly after 9:30. Each person gave a
self-introduction and the group adopted the
agenda
Kristen
McDonald Stone
reviewed the election results. While the Democrat candidate
won the gubernatorial race(Jennifer Granholm), the Michigan
House and Senate continue under the strong control of
Republicans. In Congress, Republicans gained control of the
Senate and increased their margin in the House of
Representatives.
In 2003,
Congress will take up the re-authorization of CCDBG, TANF
(neither of which passed in 2002) and Head Start;
furthermore, Michigan faces a huge budget deficit. Kristen
recommended that members of the Task Force
o
Send congratulatory letters to the newly elected
officials and
o Send
"thanks for your continuing support" letters to friends
of child care who were re-elected.
Kristen
recommended we develop a cadre of advocates that reaches out
to both parties while always focusing on the importance of
early childhood education and care.
GUEST
SPEAKER: SHARON PETERS,
CEO and President of Michigan's Children.
Sharon
echoed Kristen's remarks about reaching out to all elected
officials. She pointed out that the Michigan Ready to
Succeed Partnership (MRTSP), which arose from the Michigan
Child Care Task Force is an excellent vehicle for promoting
our message. MRTSP includes leaders from various sector of
Michigan. Members on the MRTSP Executive Council include
leaders from the fields of business, labor, media, faith
based organizations, state government and early childhood
education and care.
Sharon
passed out a "Ready to Succeed" folder and encouraged
members to use the folders as a resource for their meetings
with legislators. She said that "Ready to Succeed" was very
much a public awareness campaign because we need every
citizen of the state to understand the importance of early
childhood education and care. In addition, the "Ready to
Succeed" partnership developed a "White Paper" that was
distributed to each of the gubernatorial candidates four
days before the gubernatorial forum that the Michigan 4C
Association coordinated. The "White Paper" provides a blue
print on how to structure government to meet the needs of
children and families. Sharon said that the "Ready to
Succeed" partnership plans to send the "White Paper" to all
newly elected and current legislators as
well.
Sharon
discussed the gubernatorial forum, held on October 19,
focusing mostly on Ms. Granholm's remarks. Granholm talked
about creating a new department called 'the Department of
Children and Families' and the leadership of that department
would join leaders from education and health as well as
community leaders to sit on a "Children's Action
Network".
Bob
Redmond
reminded those present that organizational success comes
from identify, information, and relationships and that we
could improve our identify if we all wore the "Be Their Hero
from age Zero" buttons when we made our visits to
legislators.
Michigan
Department of Education Update: Judy Levine
Judy
said that it seems the new "on-line" system for doing
business with MDE is working well. Her office will expand
the guidelines for quality early childhood programs to
include indicators from birth. The office is looking at the
Michigan School Readiness funding data and will soon
disperse funds for slots not being used. She said that funds
for competitive MSRP grants may be cut because of
anticipated budget problems.
School
Age Care Issue
It
is likely that the House bills exempting school age programs
in schools from licensing may move during the "lame duck"
session. There are two versions of the bill: the originally
passed house version and the one that passed out of Sen.
Hammerstrom's committee (with language requiring the
Department of Education to develop guidelines for programs.)
Members of the Michigan Child Care Task Force are encouraged
to be vigilant and to monitor the legislative agenda to see
if the bills come up for a vote. (Judy Levine responded to a
question about licensing and eligibility for federal "21st
Century grants. She indicated that the federal government
would recognize whatever standards a state sets including
new standards if these bills pass.)
Child
Care Background Checks (HB 6202)
Another
bill that might be addressed during the "lame duck" session
is HB 6202. Originally, the bill, as passed by the House,
intended to place language from the rules into P.A. 116. In
the Senate committee, and in response to a comment made
during the hearing, the Senate committee decided to add
language that all volunteers, including parents, would be
subject to background checks. Kristen commented that, while
we all want to ensure the safety of children, the bill, as
passed in the Senate committee, would negatively impact
parent volunteerism. She encouraged all to speak to their
senators and encourage them to vote against the Senate
amendment to HB 6202.
Reauthorization
of TANF, CCDBG and Head Start
Because
Congress did not finalize and pass the reauthorization of
TANF and CCDBG, both of those programs as well as the
reauthorization of Head Start will be on the agenda next
year. Kristen encouraged members to contact their
Representatives and Senators in Congress to ensure that all
of the bills pass &endash; and pass with additional
funds.
Letter
to Governor-elect Granholm
Second
Letter: Regulating School-age Before/After School
Programs
Lisa distributed a draft of the letter that would go to the
governor elect. The members offered minor edits but
supported the letter. Several wanted to add language to the
letter about the school-age licensing issue. Kristen
reminded members that the Task Force had adopted a procedure
that a new, potentially controversial issue could not be
raised and adopted unless it had been raised (and announced
in the minutes) at the preceding meeting. (Lisa and Kristen
reviewed the notes from the previous meeting and confirmed
that, when discussing the letter to the new governor, the
members had not raised the issues relating to school age
care.) At the December meeting, the co-chairs will bring a
second letter to send to the governor-elect in which the
issues related to school-age care and licensing will be
raised. The members of the Task Force will then have an
opportunity to review and adopt the second
letter.
THE NET
WORK IS JUST BELOW 1000:
The EMAIL NETWORK has 842 members; snail mail has 144
members for a network total of 984.
The meeting ended at 11:45 AM.
The
NEXT
MEETING
will be on December 4, 9:30 a.m. - noon, State of Michigan
Library in Lansing, the Lake Ontario Room. NOTICE: The
January meeting is on January 8,
2nd
Wednesday.
GUEST
SPEAKER: ROBERT REDMOND,
Superintendent, Branch Intermediate School District; Chair,
Early Childhood Committee, Michigan Association of
Intermediate School Administrators; Member, Executive
Council, Michigan Ready to Succeed Partnership. Bob will
discuss local collaborative efforts now underway in Branch
County, and elsewhere, that aim to make early childhood
education and care a broad-based priority at the community
level. He will also discuss collaborative advocacy that
supports such community development.
The meeting will also discuss a proposed letter to
Governor-elect Granholm about before- and after-school
programs for school age children and pending legislative
bills to change how such programs are
regulated
Thanking
You for Your Support:
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.com. NOTE:
Manchester's email now ends in ".COM"
o This message is made possible, in part, by generous
support from the Frey Foundation of Grand
Rapids.
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