District 279 ECFE Parent Advisory Council

What steps do you think the state should take to help support families in their tough job of raising children?

One of the most important things we need to do for families is to offer high quality early childhood learning opportunities. We have started to talk and think about E-12 rather than K-12 education in Minnesota. Unfortunately, the last two years have seen a giant step backwards in our commitment to funding early childhood education. We cannot offer families high quality early childhood learning opportunities without funding those programs.

I believe there is a large difference between candidates who just talk the talk, and those who walk the talk when it comes to early childhood education. One of the reasons I chose to run against the incumbent legislator in 47B is because of her party line votes in favor of dramatic cuts to early childhood education, despite her claim that she “supports education.” My opponent received a 0% rating from the Children’s Defense Fund in 2003 and a 9% rating in 2004. The incumbent’s most troubling vote in 2003 was her vote to reduce education funding in MN by $185 million – including cuts of 15% to ECFE, Head Start and School Readiness and the elimination of state support for Way to Grow.

These short-sighted cuts are penny-wise, but pound-foolish. They “save” us money today, but deprive us of the future return on investment that would come from fully funding these programs.

What do you believe provides a "better return on investment" than quality early care and education in terms of long term benefits gained by investing money during the earliest years of life?

No public investment that I am aware of provides a better return on investment than early childhood education. In the past few years, it has been exciting to watch the phenomenal leaps forward in our scientific understanding of how the human brain works – especially the magical phase between birth and age six. The first few years of life provide us with a golden opportunity to get kids started off on a path to success in learning.

Economists’ research indicates that for every dollar we invest in good early childhood education, we see eight dollars returned. Art Rolnick, Senior Vice President and Director of Research of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, published a research paper in March, 2003 documenting the high rate of return on our investments in early childhood education. This research is just some of the evidence that exists supporting how cost-effective it is to invest in early childhood education.

In light of current economic conditions, how would you ensure that programs supporting families and young children aren't sacrificed?

We need to make certain that investing in early childhood family education is one of our top priorities in the state budget. Considering that the State of Minnesota is currently spending one million dollars per day more than it is taking in, and considering that the last budget deficit was “fixed” using gimmicks, one-time funding, and accounting shifts, we need to be willing to raise revenue in order to invest adequately in early childhood education. In 1999 and 2000, we gave permanent tax cuts to the wealthiest Minnesotans in response to a temporary surplus. Now that the temporary surplus has evaporated, and revenue has decreased dramatically due to the recession, we need to at least consider repealing the tax cuts we gave to the wealthy when times were good. Our first priority should be to make government as efficient as possible – and eradicate waste and fraud wherever we find them. If there is not enough revenue to fund early childhood education after we increase efficiency and eliminate waste, we need political leaders who are courageous enough to say that we have to repeal the tax cuts for the wealthy, which were given in a time of large surpluses.

If you are elected to office, will you take a leadership role in fighting for increased funding for early childhood programs?

Yes!

Would you vote to increase funding to early childhood programs whether your party supports the spending?

Yes!