Congress finally finished its federal education spending bills and early learning didn’t lose much ground, though some major programs didn’t gain a lot either, according to a new analysis from The Early Ed Watch Blog.

The fact that child care block grants and special education help for preschoolers essentially kept pace with last year isn’t necessarily bad news, since early learning funding received a healthy bump, worth billions of dollars, in the economic stimulus package.  Check out Early Ed Watch’s excellent analysis for details and a funding chart.

The appropriations decisions are the latest twists in what has been a wild year for early education funding – a big infusion in federal stimulus dollars, state policymakers fighting to preserve programs and now another round of state budget battles are looming.

What do you think about the state of early ed funding in this economic climate? How are the federal and state governments doing? Give a grade. Post a comment and tell us what you think and where these funding debates are headed.

News and Notes:

• Home Visitation: The Center on Law and Social Policy released a new report on “Extending Home Visiting to Kinship Caregivers and FFN Caregivers.”
• The Wall Street Journal blog The Juggle offers this interesting post: “Is Raising Children Linked to Depression?”

Washington State News

• Column: To Be Equal – High Quality Childhood Education A Step Closer for All – 9/30/09, The Seattle Medium
• Stimulus, grants fund early-childhood ed district-wide – 9/30/ The Tacoma Weekly

National News

• Op-Ed: Early education vital to health of armed forces – 10/1/09, Morning Sentinel (ME)
• Can Better Child Care Shrink Some Achievement Gaps? – 9/30/09, Education Week Blog: Politics K-12
• Race to the Top Grants: Not Just a K-12 Thing? – 9/29/09, Education Week Blog: Politics K-12
• Parents puzzled why developmental screening for pre-K now being enforced – 9/29/09, New York Daily News
• From Birth, Engage Your Child With Talk – 9/28/09, The New York Times
• Parent to Parent: Finding a play-based pre-K – 9/28/09, The Buffalo News (NY)
• Op-Ed: Ready to learn? – 9/27/09, The State (SC)
• Op-Ed: Kindergarten gives children the best possible start – 9/27/09, The Eagle-Tribune (MA)
• Can the Right Kinds of Play Teach Self Control? – 9/25/09, New York Times Magazine
• Learning language early – 9/18/09, The Standard Times (MA)
   

Policy

• Texas Children Lose Out on High-Quality Child Care Because of Limited Funding – 10/1/09, National Women's Law Center 
• The New Pre-Schoolers: Tested, and Ready for Business? – 9/30/09, Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media Blog: Early Stories
• From the Big Easy, where pre-k is anything but – 9/25/09, Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media Blog: Early Stories

The federal government gave governors $2 billion in February largely to help poor families pay for child care and now advocates have a new tool to track where the money is going and help direct it.               

Today, the Center on Law and Social Policy said states have reported spending nine percent of $2 billion in the economic stimulus package for the Child Care Development Block Grant. Washington State is spending its share faster, having already drawn down roughly 25 percent of its $35 million. (You can track spending with CLASP’s monthly reports.)

More important than the numbers is the idea that early learning lobbyists and advocates can follow this money and help advise states about where to spend it, points out Danielle Ewen, CLASP’s director of Child Care and Early Education.

While states may seem to be spending this money at a slow rate, there are plenty of good reasons. For example, the money may be flowing but not yet reported or state officials may be taking their time to spend it wisely. They have three years to spend the money.

Still, I am left to wonder about the low level of reported spending of funds designed to give the economy a relatively quick boost.

Washington isn’t wasting any time, spending all of the $8 million it has drawn down on child care subsidies for poor families, which help cover child care costs while parents look for work, receive approved job training or go to work, according to the Department of Early Learning.

“The Legislature gave us direction on how to spend most of the rest of the stimulus dollars in the 2009-2011 state operating budget. $1 million of it is going to our contract with Thrive to move forward on testing elements of the Quality Rating and Improvement System. There is a small pot of money in there that we will be using to improve quality in infant/toddler care around the state. We are working on an internal plan right now on how those dollars will be spent,” DEL spokeswoman Amy Blondin added in an email.

Coffee Break Reading:  As you drink your afternoon cup of java, tea or water, check out this excellent story in the Times Picayune, “Families struggle with limited – and competitive – pre-K options.”

This quote should get you interested:

"The low cost of living in New Orleans is all well and good, and works fine if you want to own a dog, " (parent Jena) McNamara said. "But it's not so great if you want to send your child to prekindergarten."

(Thanks to EarlyStories for finding this great story.)

The biggest new federal investment in early learning in years could move closer to reality this week, when the House votes on a bill that would funnel $8 billion into child care, preschool and pre-k over the next 10 years.

Later this week, the House of Representatives is expected to debate a bill that would revamp direct college lending, but the big news is savings would be used to create an Early Learning Challenge Fund, an ambitious plan to improve the quality and availability of child care in this country.

The bill spends a lot of ink on quality, with money targeted to educating teachers, using evidence-based standards and creating rating systems. (Does this mean Washington state would get a healthy investment to expand its quality rating pilot project?)

The bill is also deliberately dedicated to closing the gap in access to quality child care.

Not less than 65 percent of the grant shall be used to implement quality initiatives that increase the number of disadvantaged children in high-quality early learning programs. - Summary of Early Learning Challenge Fund (H.R. 3221), National Women’s Law Center.

Washington state appears well-positioned to win some money, though it’s not clear whether it could get a Pathways grant, which initially enjoys a bigger portion of the funds and is designed for states with well established early learning systems, or a challenge grant, according to one local early ed watcher.

“I think there is more that we need to do,” said Leslie Dozono, early learning policy coordinator for the Seattle-based Children’s Alliance.

Still, our state already has one of the elements required for a state to receive priority, a demonstrated public-private partnership, aka Thrive by Five Washington.

A grassroots lobbying campaign is already building, with SOAR circulating an email that supporters can send to lawmakers.

Stay tuned for developments later this week.