By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, Aug. 21
There”s a good chance the 2010 Commission won”t come up with a plan for streamlining the state”s early childhood initiatives in time for the 2008 legislative session.
“I think we”re hurrying this whole thing,” commission chairwoman Rochelle Chronister said Tuesday. “And I think if we hurry this, we”re going to be like every other state that”s tried it and fall flat on our face.”
Earlier this year, lawmakers directed both the Legislative Educational Planning Committee and the 2010 Commission to come up with a plan for starting an Office of Early Childhood Education and Services.
The education planning committee, in turn, asked the 2010 Commission, an advisory group on education issues, to take the lead.
Chronister had hoped to have a plan in rough-draft form by the close of the commission meeting Tuesday. But the issues, she said, defied simple solutions.
“I am extremely reluctant for this commission to recommend something based on what it”s heard in three monthly meetings,” Chronister said.
None of the commission members objected to the proposed delay.
Afterward, Sen. Nick Jordan, R-Shawnee, expressed disappointment.
“This may be something the Legislature will have to take ownership of,” he said.
Jordan chaired the Kansas Senate”s K-12 Task Force that called for starting an Office of Early Childhood Education and Services.
House Speaker Melvin Neufeld encouraged the commission to take its time.
“The problem is there aren”t any good models out there for you to look at,” Neufeld said. “And that”s because the other states that have tried to do this
they all got in a hurry. I”d rather you not do that.”
Though the commission did not vote on a specific proposal, it”s leaning toward putting the state Department of Education in charge of all early childhood development initiatives aimed at making sure children are ready for school
It”s also asked the Children”s Cabinet to report on the prospects for getting the Early Learning Coordinating Council to put together a framework for creating and Office of Early Childhood Education.
“I think we have the beginnings of a plan,” Chronister said.
Both the Children”s Cabinet and the state Department of Education will be invited to meet with the 2010 Commission on Sept. 13-14 in Topeka.
“We”ll invite the (Kansas) health policy authority, too,” Chronister said.
A recent review by the Legislative Division of Post Audit, which found that 10 state and federal agencies operate 23 different programs aimed at improving the lives of children under age 5.
These programs spend more than $310 million annually. Almost two-thirds of the expenditures are federally funded.
The six programs with the largest budgets in fiscal year 2006:
* Child care assistance, $60.1 million.
* Services for preschool children with disabilities, $44.1 million
* Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program, $53.4 million
* Head Start, $43.1 million
* Nutritional support for preschool and child care programs, $26.3 million
* Immunizations for low-income and under-insured children, $21 million.
Though these programs are aimed at making sure children are healthy and ready for school, state and local officials are not sure how many students are not “school ready” when they enroll in kindergarten.
Kansas City school district superintendent Jill Shackelford said 2006 data showed that 83 percent of the district”s first graders were not ready to learn last year.
In testimony Monday:
* Neil Guthrie, an administrator with the Wichita school district, said “somewhere in the upper 60th percentile” of the district”s kindergartners arrived not ready to learn.
* Kansas Head Start Association Director Mary Baskett said the state”s Head Start programs reach only three of five eligible 3-to-5-year-olds; Early Head Start programs reach one of 20 eligible infants and toddlers.
The University of Kansas, the state Department of Education and the Kansas Health Institute have launched a study aimed at defining and measuring school readiness across the state. The report is due in January.
-Dave Ranney is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at
dranney@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 128.