Tag: pre-kindergarten

Pre-K In the Morning

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I went to school this morning.

A pre-k class at Wildwood Elementary Middle School.

I had not been in the school since it was renovated and expanded as part of the 21st Century Schools program.

The expected enrollment was 600 students, but currently there are 800, the principal Sherelle Barnes informed me.

That’s a positive sign. I’ll try to learn more about why that’s the case.

I lead the class for a little while – alphabet, numbers, and some civics.

Overwhelmingly, the kids joined in eagerly. Some were incredibly shy. I wondered what made them so.

“I teach for five hours to law students in the fall,” I told the teacher. “You teach five hours five days a week for nine months. I admire what you do.”

Potentially the most important thing

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The future of our public education system is the most important issue my colleagues and I will address during this four-year term.

What will we be asked to do?

Preparing our students for the 21st Century economy will require:

  • Early support for children in pre-kindergarten;
  • High quality and diverse teachers and school leaders;
  • College or career readiness for all students; and
  • Accountability for everyone involved to ensure that all students succeed.

Those are the conclusions of the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education. It was chaired by Brit Kirwan, former chancellor of the University of Maryland System.

He has called it “potentially the most important thing I have ever been involved in.”

I was the lead sponsor of legislation that has expanded pre-kindergarten and provided incentives for our best teachers to work in schools with the greatest need for their skills.

Now it’s our obligation to do that on a greater scale.

We must review the commission’s recommendations, enact them into law where appropriate, and fund them.

That must be a bipartisan effort – by the Governor and the General Assembly,

Race to the Tots – Continued

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You don’t have to be the lead sponsor of a bill.

Not if you can legitimately say that you played a role in moving public policy in the same direction – the right direction, as the bill.

Race to the Tots was the name Senator Bill Ferguson gave to our 2013 bill creating a competitive grant program to stimulate innovation and expand access to high-quality early childhood education.

House Bill 925 did not pass, but it set the stage for a bill that did.

The next year, the Prekindergarten Expansion Act of 2014 was introduced by the O’Malley Administration. Public and private providers could bid for $4.3 million in grants to stimulate innovation and expand access to high-quality early childhood education.

The Kirwan Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education has recommended that the State provide universal access to public and private prekindergarten for all four year olds and low-income three year olds.

That has prompted the introduction of House Bill 1415, which would mandate funding for the Pre-Kindergarten Expansion Grant Program. This program was created by the 2014 O’Malley bill.

I’m not a sponsor of this year’s bill, but I will work with pre-K advocates to ensure it passes.

Mandating pre-K-12 spending and improving performance

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Two visions of education will be considered by the General Assembly this session and next year as well.

Last week, Governor Hogan declared that we needed the Office of the State Education Investigator General to investigate “complaints of unethical, unprofessional, or illegal conduct relating” in our public schools.

At his budget press conference yesterday, the governor stated, “The budget leaves nearly $1 billion in reserves and continues – for the fourth straight year – to fund K-12 education at an all-time record level.”

Our public schools were also the subject of a legislative hearing yesterday.

Brit Kirwan, the former Chancellor of the University System of Maryland, is now chairing the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education.

Before yesterday, if you had asked me what the Commission is studying, I would have told you, “the formula that determines how much money the state provides our 24 local school systems every year.”

It’s that formula, written into law, that mandated Governor Hogan’s record funding for the fourth straight year.

But that’s not all the Kirwan Commission is doing.

Our students are not performing well on assessments of what they’ve learned, Kirwan said.

We must better prepare teachers for the classroom and expand the number of high quality teachers and principals. Schools serving poorer students are underfunded.

Accountability will be crucial to persuading the public to bear these costs, he added.

In the public debate that we will have, will our focus be on improving our students’ performance or penalizing those administrators who have failed?

I’m hoping and betting on the former.

August 12 – Summer Priorities

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2016 Legislative Diary | No Comments

The Preakness, pre-kindergarten, lead poisoning, and Enoch Pratt top my priority list this summer.

Pimlico Race Course should remain the long-term home of the Preakness. The study of that issue is underway, under the auspices of the Maryland Stadium Authority. If the report recommends building a new facility at Pimlico, my job will be to help make those recommendations a reality in Governor Hogan’s capital budget.

Attending kindergarten was not mandatory in Maryland until 2002. Now we must decide whether to do the same for pre-kindergarten. The benefits to 4-year olds are clear. They begin kindergarten with important skills and are less likely to fall behind their peers. How do we pay for this? How does the need compare with other education objectives?

None of my lead poisoning bills passed last session. My efforts this summer should lead to a different outcome next year. People on all sides of the issue have been meeting under the auspices of the state judiciary. Our recommendations, including compromises, will carry the weight of our diversity.

Libraries have become our window to both the printed word and the Internet. That’s the case in Roland Park, Edmondson Village, and the Bronx. House Bill 1401 provides additional funding for Pratt branches that increase their operating hours. Public and philanthropic dollars are needed to make this happen.

See http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/12/opinion/too-poor-to-afford-the-internet.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

To read more about these issues, go to the newly redesigned delsandy.com.

March 21 – Too close to assume

| by delsandy | Sandy's 2016 Legislative Diary | No Comments

Two favorable committee votes today send different messages.

The Senate bill to require the Governor to fund the state’s $11.1 million match for a $30M federal grant to expand pre-kindergarten opportunities got a favorable committee report.  The vote was on party lines.

That was also the case when my identical bill passed the House on Saturday, 93-41.

Governor Hogan opposes legislation mandating that he spend money for certain purposes.

It will soon be up to the Governor whether to sign the bill or seek a compromise.

My legislation dealing with the sale of tobacco to minors also received a favorable committee report.

The vote was 12-10, despite my amendments, which prompted tobacco lobbyists to take no position on the bill, instead of opposing it.

With that close call, I will take nothing for granted the rest of the way.

My thanks and returning to my agenda

| by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2014 Legislative Diary | No Comments

First, my thanks.

First and foremost, to the voters who cast their ballots for me.

In addition, to those of you who volunteered or contributed to my campaign, as well as those of you who have provided suggestions and advice on legislation over the years.

Now it’s time to return to my agenda for next year.

My three highest priorities are:

 

  1. Pre-kindergarten expansion We should provide full-day pre-k to all children whose parents want this valuable benefit. This is the logical next step after the competitive grant program we passed this year to stimulate innovation and expand access to high-quality early childhood education.

 

  1. Providing incentives for our best teachers to work with our low-income students The Nancy Grasmick Teacher Award repays a portion of the academic debt for these classroom leaders. We should consider expanding this program.

 

  1. Workplace fairness We need to hold supervisors and their employers responsible for their actions in the workplace. A supervisor is someone who has the authority to hire or fire employees, the Supreme Court found. Justice Ginsburg dissented, as she did in the Lilly Ledbetter case. A supervisor is also someone who can affect the employment of others and direct their work, she wrote.

 

I look forward to hearing from you about these and other issues.

Pre-K pre-funding

| by delsandy | featured, Sandy's 2014 Legislative Diary | No Comments

It’s not too early to look ahead.

The Administration’s pre-kindergarten bill passed the House of Delegates today.  It has also passed the Senate.

Minor differences in the two versions should be easy to resolve.

This legislation will create a $4.3 million competitive grant program to stimulate innovation and expand access to high-quality early childhood education.

To provide ½-day pre-K for all children in the state whose parents choose to enroll them would cost an additional $120 – 140 million.

“Candidates make many promises — but how to pay for them?” read a headline in last week’s Baltimore Sun.

Expansion of pre-kindergarten is one of the promises that’s not yet funded.

After reading the article, I wrote two colleagues, “After June 24 [Primary Election Day], we should strategize on funding pre-K.”

Questions for different reasons

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The Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee were thinking ahead to the next bill.

So was I.

The Pre-Kindergarten Expansion Act of 2014 was introduced by the O’Malley-Brown Administration.

The legislation would authorize a competitive grant process for public school systems and private providers to expand pre-K.

There is $4.3 million in the budget for the winning proposals.

To provide ½-day pre-K for all children in the state whose parents choose to enroll them would cost an additional $120 – 140 million.

Lt. Governor Brown said that in response to a question from a Republican delegate.

Another GOP member asked what expansion would cost county school systems.  (An unfunded mandate in Annapolis parlance.)

The questions I asked (to myself):  How do we make the case for expanded pre-k?  When is the right year to do so?  Can we do so in a way that benefits the schools that are already providing these services, such as Baltimore City’s?

Thanks for a study and a plan

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 “I read the bill.” 

That was the subject line of the email I sent the Lt. Governor’s policy director.

“Uncodified section of HB 297 re: parental involvement is more detailed than our bill draft. Thanks.”  was the text.

House Bill 297 is the Administration’s pre-K bill.

Senator Bill Ferguson and I had a pre-meeting with the staff before a meeting with the advocates, which was followed by a press conference with the Lt. Governor, Senate President, and the Speaker.

At the pre-meeting, we were shown a draft of the bill.

The legislation that the Senator and I had worked on required a study of “the benefits of parental engagement in conjunction with early childhood education.”

I asked that such language be added to the Administration bill.

Today, I read the bill.

HB 297 would require the State Department of Education to develop an outreach plan based on the best practices identified by the study.

 A study and a plan are better than a study.

So I sent my email.

As Tip O’Neill said (but not in an email), “People like to be asked and people like to be thanked.”

  • My Key Issues:

  • Pimlico and The Preakness
  • Our Neighborhoods
  • Pre-Kindergarten
  • Lead Paint Poisoning