Remove 3134 Children from Licensed Child Care?

Remove 3134 Children from Licensed Child Care?

 “Even a great batter needs a team to win!”

The general power point presentation recently provided by the Mississippi Department of Education to the State Early Childhood Advisory Council left many questions regarding the MDE proposal for a federal Pre-K grant.

In particular, why would MDE go off on its own to develop a conflicting early learning application and circumvent the expertise, talent and official capacity of the State Early Childhood Advisory Council and the SECAC goal to revise the Quality Rating System and improve access to quality early learning programs for high-needs children in child care?  (Click here to read SECAC goals.)

What is clear?

Individuals responsible for alleged defamation and bias against child care capacity and extreme policy adversely impacting the child care industry have apparently found a comfortable “home” at MDE.

 “High Quality From Day 1”

That part of the presentation was a clear giveaway to me! So I asked, “Did MDE contract with Rachel Canter and Mississippi First to develop this Pre-K grant?”

“Yes.”

In her preliminary Pre- Collaborative Legislative Brief, Rachel Canter either framed the discussion or repeated what the MSU Early Childhood Institute has framed for conclusion on quality in the child care industry and QRIS:

“The QCCSS is an important step in identifying subpar centers, though the rating system does not directly measure child learning. Regrettably, the ratings of participating centers have not been released publicly, although DHS reports that it is working to release scores of individual QCCSS participants on a new website. According to information in the state’s Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge Fund proposal, most rated centers scored below a 3 with a plurality scoring a 1, the lowest score. These results indicate that the private childcare market does not have the capacity to serve as a pre-K substitute without significant quality improvements.”

She either does not understand or it did not benefit her Pre-K model to explain that a score of 1 is given to a child care program upon QRIS enrollment and that program may be assigned that rating up to one year or until QRIS evaluation takes place.

Regardless, it is a convoluted notion of the “Improvement” component and technical Assistance provided to QRIS participating providers. Colleagues may not be incorrect in saying her remarks constitute defamation with discriminatory overtones – QRIS is not designed as a tool for identifying “those” to be culled out of federal or state programs.

Jill Dent is the Pre-K Collaborator Director for MDE. She is the former Director of DECCD who led DHS into defeat in a law suit for her failure to provide the economic impact of XEROX echildcare on small child care business.  She was also responsible for an investigation/reprimand from HHS to DHS for reducing assistance provided to low-income parents from full-time fees to part-time fees by denying payment to providers for the time it took parents to collect their children after work – a serious federal “reasonable distance” violation of the TANF Block Grant. Although corrected with the help of Congressman Bennie Thompson, many providers have still not received all the full-time fees for the full-time care provided that she denied…and never will.

 “A Quick Google of ‘Pre-K Access’”

ARIZONA

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

First Things First Pre-K Expansion & Collaboration Grant Guidance Manual

A specific minimum percentage of funding must be made available to community-based providers as contractually required and may be increased incrementally to reflect deeper investments in the mixed service delivery model.

GEORGIA

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Proprietary providers brought an important ingredient to the program— facilities. In many states across the nation, a lack of appropriate facilities stands as one of the major obstacles in developing universal Prekindergarten programs. Including private non-profit and for-profit child care providers into a state-based early education program significantly enhances program capacity and support. Program administrators had to face the reality that an increasingly powerful and competitive proprietary child care industry is prepared to fight to protect its customer base. Participation by proprietary child care providers depends in large measure on funding rates and projected revenues. Policy makers and administrators must understand how to work with organizations and institutions with diverse cultures, priorities, and goals.

TEXAS

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Texas’s pre-K pilot program combines a mixed delivery system composed of public and private providers and consultant services from a third-party expert, the Center for Improving the Readiness of Children for Learning and Education (CIRCLE) at the University of Texas. Beginning in the 2006–07 school year, school districts are required to show how they are collaborating with community-based providers in order to receive expansion grant funds.

COLORADO

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Colorado utilizes local boards to administer pre-K block grants, but board members are appointed by school district superintendents. As a result, school districts are the primary participants and funding is allocated based on the needs of the school district rather than the needs of individual families. Public school districts that administer pre-K funds have few incentives to contract with qualified competitors.

OKLAHOMA

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Oklahoma created a pilot pre-K program in 1980, also with school districts as gatekeepers. Oklahoma has one of the nation’s highest percentages of pre-K enrollment, and both public and private providers are eligible, yet parents do not have much by way of choice.

 “It is Science”

Jimella Harris says:        

“It is a given that licensing, accreditation (health and safety), professional teachers, child-teacher ratios, and better pay, all contribute to high-quality preschool and impact children entering kindergarten ready to learn. It is not a given that high-quality preschool should be absorbed into the K-12 bureaucracy.

LEAs’ monopolistic and silo propensities are not conducive to strong partnerships with outside programs.

The funding mechanisms they create will either support existing pre-K programs or supplant the largest segment of the pre-K through 12 education system offering parental choice.

States can also feed the money directly into public school systems to create an additional grade (pre-K).

Stephen Goldsmith, a professor of government and director of the Ash Institute’s Innovations in American Government Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School draws the following conclusion:

“States that choose to direct funds primarily toward public schools risk eliminating today’s diverse ECE provider market and replacing it with a one-size-fits-all model like the one that ails the K–12 system.

Expanding and improving the existing ECE system will produce higher-quality outcomes than a monopolistic approach to pre-K education. In a market-based system that ties funding to children, everyone benefits. Parents exercise control over and participate in the education of their children, children receive optimal and equitable care, high-quality private providers remain in business, and states optimize their pre-K expenditures.

Leverage the existing system. Building on the infrastructure already in place not only guarantees that diverse and flexible solutions remain available, but also allows the state to leverage any new investment.”

 “MDE Draft Pre-K Grant Proposal”

Adding Title I- or district-funded preK classrooms and Head Start, Mississippi will serve close to 60% of its four-year-olds in no-cost, high-quality preK programs.

All collaboratives funded through the grant will be required to make a 1:1 match. Many of the collaboratives will make this match all or in part by leveraging two sources—Title I dollars and Head Start dollars. By using these dollars as a match, collaboratives can extend the reach of their current programs without reducing children served because the same dollar can now serve twice as many children. 

NO LEVERAGE WRITTEN INTO THE GRANT FOR CHILD CARE DEVELOPMENT FUND DOLLARS or IDENTIFIED HEAD START/CHILD CARE PARTNERSHIPS OR TITLE I/CHILD CARE PARTNERSHIPS:

Each proposed collaborative has a plan for providing a 1:1 match of these grant funds as well as a tentative sustainability plan.

“Although there is no formal coordination between the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) and the state-funded program, childcare centers are allowed to match state funds with parent tuition dollars (low-income?) as well as the child care certificates provided through CCDBG.”

Cost per child: Mississippi used a cost-per-child estimate based on the 2013 Head Start per-child cost in Mississippi. This cost estimate is $6,222.

Cost per child less the local match: Mississippi estimated that participating preK collaboratives will make a 1:1 match, meaning the grant-funded per-child cost would be $3,111.”

In Mississippi, it has been published that the average cost of a cert is $2,200 per year.

Under this scheme, the loss to low-income providers serving low-income children is -$911 dollars per child or –$9,110 per classroom right from the start- insufficient for participation.

Providers would not be able to sign an upfront MOA stating that they can sustain costs as reimbursed by MDE as follows:

Subsidies will decrease over the four years of the grant according to the timetable below: Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4
100%	75%	50%	25%

“Patronizing “

“Preventing a diminution of programs serving children from birth through age five” (all the while demonstrating known harm to private child care.)

“Because the collaborative model enables all providers to participate in the preK system, each type of provider benefits. For childcare centers who typically serve children from birth to five, one of collaboration’s greatest benefits is that participation helps them remain financially viable by continuing to serve four-year-old children. ” (?????????)

The proposed new collaboratives also include private childcare partners. Xx of the 25 contain one or more private childcare partners. Over time, Mississippi hopes that more private childcare partners will join collaboratives as more providers learn about the collaboratives and as funds increase.”

On Wednesday afternoon, October 8, 2014, SECAC member Danny Sprietler, who previously, openly objected to any grant taking children out of child care and who could find no legislation or statute giving MDE the authority to add another grade level to k-12, made the motion that SECAC give a STRONG LETTER OF SUPPORT.

The motion was unanimously supported, even by those individuals representing private child care programs!!

Remove 3134 Children from Licensed Child Care?

It appears that is the plan!

Since the adoption of the Mississippi Early Learning Collaborative Act, the number of licensed child care programs has decreased from over 1,700 to 1,503.

 

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