BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
ACR 45 (Weber)
As Amended May 2, 2013
Majority vote
EDUCATION 7-0
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|Ayes:|Buchanan, Olsen, Campos, | | |
| |Chávez, Nazarian, Weber, | | |
| |Williams | | |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Urges the California State Legislature, the
Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), and the Governor to
restore budget funding to early care and education programs and
to support efforts to fund and implement the Quality Rating and
Improvement System (QRIS) and other programs that support early
care and education. Specifically, this resolution :
1)Makes declarations and findings that include the following:
a) Eighty percent of a child's brain development occurs by
age three and 90% of brain development by age five.
Children who attend quality early care and education
programs are more likely to pass reading exams through
third grade.
b) Poor African Americans and Latino students, and English
learners are overrepresented among students scoring in the
lowest levels on the National Assessment of Educational
Progress and on state standards-based test.
c) A high-quality early care and education program that
engages parents results in higher grades, better school
attendance, increased motivation, and higher graduation
rates.
d) An integral part of a sound public investment strategy
to secure California's economic future must include the
development of, and the appropriate compensation levels to
recruit and retain a highly trained early care and
education workforce.
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e) President Barack Obama has proposed making high-quality
preschool available to every single child in America,
stating that "Every dollar we invest in high-quality early
childhood education can save more than seven dollars later
on - by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy,
even reducing violent crime."
2)Resolves by the Assembly, with the Senate concurring, that
colleagues of the Legislature, the SPI, and the Governor are
urged to restore budget funding to early care and education
programs and to support efforts to fund and implement the QRIS
and other programs that support early care and education.
3)Resolves that the Assembly urges its colleagues to commit to
improving the public's understanding of the role that early
care and education plays in securing an educated, nimble, and
stable workforce to help keep California's economy vibrant and
strong for years to come.
FISCAL EFFECT : None. This resolution is keyed non-fiscal by
the Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS : Studies, such as those from the RAND corporation,
have shown that quality early childhood education programs have
a number of benefits, including improving children's readiness
for school, higher test scores, reduced grade-level retention,
higher rates of school completion, and higher likelihood of
college attendance.
Background : The California Department of Education (CDE)
administers a child care and development system, maintaining
1,401 service contracts with approximately 758 public and
private agencies supporting and providing services to children
from birth to 13 years of age. Contractors include school
districts, county offices of education, cities, colleges, other
public entities, community-based organizations, and private
agencies. In fiscal year (FY) 2011-12, $2.3 billion was
provided for child care and development programs from state and
federal funds, enrolling an estimated 345,000 children. This is
down from $2.669 billion initially provided in the FY 2010-11
budget (prior to midyear trigger cuts) with almost 416,000
slots. According to the Legislative Analyst's Office, overall
funding for the child care and development program has decreased
by almost $1 billion since 2008-09, with the elimination of
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110,000 slots. The Governor's proposed FY 2013-14 budget
provides an increase of $12 million over FY 2012-13 funds for a
total of $2.2 billion for child care and development programs to
provide an estimated 341,000 child care and preschool slots.
In February, President Obama announced his plans for early
childhood education, including providing high-quality preschool
for all low- and moderate-income four-year-old children at or
below 200% of poverty, extending and expanding voluntary home
visits, and investment in a new Early Head Start-Child Care
partnership. In April, President Obama released his proposed
2014 budget, which includes over $90 billion for early childhood
programs, including the following:
1)$75 billion over the next decade to expand access to high
quality preschool for all low- and moderate-income
four-year-olds, funded by a $0.94 cent tobacco tax.
2)$15 billion for the voluntary home visiting program over the
next 10 years. These voluntary programs provide nurses,
social workers, and other professionals that meet with at-risk
families in their homes and connect them to resources that
impact a child's health, development, and ability to learn.
3)$1.4 billion for new early Head Start-Child Care partnerships
to enhance and support early learning settings, provide new,
full-day, comprehensive services that meet the needs of
working families and prepare children for the transition into
preschool.
This resolution urges the Legislature, the SPI and the Governor
to restore funding for early care and education programs.
QRIS : This resolution also urges the Legislature, the SPI and
the Governor to support efforts to fund and implement the QRIS.
SB 1629 (Steinberg), Chapter 307, Statutes of 2008, established
the Early Learning Quality Improvement System (ELQIS) Advisory
Committee and required the ELQIS Advisory Committee to develop a
policy and implementation plan for an Early Learning Quality
Improvement System. The provisions of the bill repealed on
January 1, 2012. The ELQIS Advisory Committee's final report
recommended creating a statewide, tiered-reimbursement QRIS to
evaluate and reimburse programs based on five quality elements:
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ratios and group size; teaching and learning practices; family
involvement; staff education and training; and program
leadership. In 2011, California was awarded a $52.6 million
four-year federal grant, the Race to the Top - Early Learning
Challenge grant, to strengthen the quality of early learning
programs. California awarded the majority of the funds to 17
Regional Leadership Consortia, each led by an established
organization that is already operating or developing a QRIS. The
17 Consortia in 16 counties includes: Alameda, Contra Costa, El
Dorado, Fresno, Los Angeles, Merced, Orange, Sacramento, San
Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara,
Santa Cruz, Ventura, and Yolo.
According to the CDE, "As part of this grant, the Consortia will
bring together organizations in their regions with the same goal
of improving the quality of early learning and will expand their
current areas of impact by inviting other programs to join their
QRIS or reaching out to mentor other communities. By joining
California's Race to the Top effort, the Consortia voluntarily
agree to align their local QRIS to a common "Quality Continuum
Framework" based on research-based elements and related
assessment and improvement tools. They also agree to implement in
their QRIS two common tiers using the Framework in addition to
locally determined tiers and to set local goals to improve the
quality of early learning and development programs." The
Consortias will set local goals to improve the quality of early
learning and development programs in the following three areas:
1) child development and readiness for school; 2) teachers and
teaching; and 3) program and environment quality.
The author states, "A child who attends quality early care and
education programs is less likely to be arrested and more likely
to earn higher incomes than a child who does not, and the
opportunity to participate in such programs prepares children to
attain a higher standard of living as adults and to become
members of the high-skilled workforce that is critical to our
nation's economic future."
Analysis Prepared by : Sophia Kwong Kim / ED. / (916) 319-2087
FN: 0000508
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