May 29, 2009

Contents

+ Quick Overview: 2009 Legislative Session
+ Budget Overview
+ Early Learning Take-Aways for Session
+ What’s Ahead

Quick Overview: 2009 Legislative Session
Legislative session ended on time -- there will be no special session.

The 2009 legislative session ended as scheduled on April 26th. Despite much speculation that the legislature would reconvene for a special session to vote on and bring closure to some “NTIB” bills, or necessary to implement the budget bills, it is now widely accepted that the legislature will not reconvene, at least in the immediate future. While these NTIB bills have an impact on some issue areas, early learning is not impacted by any unresolved NTIB bills from the 2009 session.

If a special session is needed this interim, legislators could conduct business during their committee days this autumn, saving taxpayers money since policymakers and staff from across the state will not be required to return to Olympia for additional work days in a special session. Legislators meet every year typically in September and December for what is called “committee days.” During this time, legislative committees hold work sessions and caucuses conduct planning work for legislative session.

Budget Overview

With a $9 billion deficit facing Washington state this year, early learning fared better in the final budget than many other issues and avoided painful cuts that hit areas such as K-12 education and public health. Early learning advocates are grateful for these efforts to preserve critical investments.

That said, the reality of this budget climate means that “faring well” equates to no increased investments. Due to the dire budget situation, policymakers and advocates alike were fighting to preserve programs and services rather than enhance investments.

With the wide gap between available funding and the level needed to continue operating programs and services at their existing levels, there was a tension between minimizing damage to the most critical programs and service delivery and protecting critical investments to systems that need to be well-positioned when the economy rebounds.

It is important to recognize that early learning avoided significant budget cuts largely due to an infusion of federal dollars through enhancements to the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). It is also important to recognize this federal funding is temporary and was not intended to be permanent.

Some programs and services that were previously funded with state funding were sustained by applying these new CCDF funds. This action leaves our early learning system heavily dependent on federal, rather than state, funding. While federal dollars are helping us this year, this dependence flags vulnerability, thus the need to keep early learning advocacy strong to ensure all children are ready for success in school and life.

In signing the budget bills, Governor Gregoire did not veto any of the early learning portion of the budget. For a summary of the early learning budget items, refer to the April 25th UWWA Legislative Update: http://www.unitedway-wa.org./leg_update/leg_updates-4-25-09.html.

Early Learning Take-Aways for Session

Good (and Semi-Good) News

• Early Learning Action Alliance Debuts. 2009 saw initiation of the Early Learning Action Alliance (ELAA). Convened by the Children’s Alliance, ELAA represents a broad coalition of organizations united in their belief that all children in Washington state deserve to have the opportunities and support they need in their first five years of life to be prepared for school and a bright future. With a primary focus on advocacy, this effort led to an unprecedented level of collaboration among early learning advocates that included development of a common legislative agenda.
• Under the auspices of ELAA, this session brought a number of successful coordinated efforts to preserve early learning budget items from the deep cuts that befell other issue areas. ELAA saw more success in budget than policy issues, largely through preservation of funding for critical programs such as the child care resource and referral system and minimal funding for the Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS).
• Notably on the policy front, the ELAA shepherded adoption of Professional Development legislation, HB 1943. This bill requires the Professional Development Consortium, in collaboration with the DEL, to develop recommendations for a comprehensive statewide system of preparation and professional development for the early learning and school-age program workforce. This bill represents the only policy proposal adopted in 2009, indicative of the focus on budget issues.
• Preservation of Paid Family Leave Policy. Although a paid family leave policy was adopted in prior years, a funding source was never identified, meaning the program was never implemented. With the state’s dire fiscal situation, the issue of identifying a funding source was not considered this year. Instead, the legislature passed and the Governor signed SB 6158 which safeguarded the paid family leave policy, protecting it from a complete cut and tabled for later consideration the question about funding source.

Challenges

Education Reform, HB 2261. On May 19th Governor Gregoire vetoed a portion of the education reform bill that specified early learning for vulnerable three- and four-year-olds would be included in the definition of basic education.

The Governor’s veto was disappointing and quite a blow to the early learning and K12 advocates that worked hard on this item, but as the Governor noted in her veto message, quality early learning opportunities benefit all children. In her message she wrote, “If early childhood education is to become part of our definition of basic education it cannot be made available only to at-risk children. I am deeply and personally committed to providing quality early learning programs for all of our children and will continue to work to develop an early learning program worthy of our earliest learners.” She went on in her veto message to task Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn and Department of Early Learning Director Dr. Bette Hyde with working together to develop a proposal that “ensures all Washington children have the benefit of early childhood education.”

As members of ELAA, we will join the other early learning stakeholders and work with the Governor and her designees to develop a workable proposal.

For individual organizational responses, visit the League of Education Voters’ blog at: http://blog.educationvoters.org/2009/05/19/a-historic-but-bittersweet-day-for-kids/ or the Children’s Alliance blog at: http://www.childrensalliance.org/news-events/governors-early-learning-veto-shock-and-disappointment

The Council for Children and Families (CCF) budget (which funds Home Visiting programs) was reduced by $1.492 million, roughly 30 percent of their state allocation. The budget did not specify where CCF should be cut, but budget language did direct that CCF achieve these savings through administrative reductions and efficiencies, minimizing impact on client services and supports. CCF is currently going through that process, preparing for the start of the new state fiscal year on July 1st.

The final budget details show that nearly 28 FTE (fulltime employee) positions will need to be eliminated from the Department of Early Learning's budget. The new director Dr. Bette Hyde is currently working with senior staff to restructure and reorganize the department in order to manage the budget cutback.

The WA St. Child Care Resource & Referral Network faces reduced funding totaling anywhere from 8% - 27%. This is caused by the loss of one-time federal funding the legislature was unable to replace, and the possible loss of funding for Family, Friend, and Neighbor caregiver supports. The legislature kept this reduction from being much worse by maintaining their state investment into CCR&R core services ($1.7 million). The Department of Early Learning received two allocations of funds that could be used to minimize CCR&R’s reductions: $1.6 million to improve the quality of infant/toddler care and $400k for parent and family caregiver supports. The infant/toddler language calls for services typically provided by CCR&R, and $450k was appropriated out of parent and family caregiver funding last biennium to CCR&R for FFN supports, among other services funded by the allocation.

What’s Ahead

Interim

Even though the Legislature is not in session, work continues. During the interim, there will likely be a number of hearings convened by the legislative committees charged with reviewing early learning issues. Check the legislative website at www.leg.wa.gov for a schedule of legislative hearings. Additionally, you can follow the work of the Department of Early Learning in implementing the various policies and budget proposals adopted this year by looking at their website at www.del.wa.gov.

Interim is an ideal time to invite your elected officials to visit your early learning program to see first-hand the real-world impacts of their policies and funding decisions. You can use such a visit to speak up for the early learning issues you care about most. You can access legislative contact information at http://www.leg.wa.gov/legislature.

Legislative Updates
This legislative update is brought to you by the United Ways of Washington in partnership with the Washington State Child Care Resource and Referral Network. This will be our final update until the start of the 2010 legislative session. Our goal with these updates is to share broad information about early learning legislative and budget items in Washington state. We aim to provide background and context of the broader legislative process and also offer historical insights that illuminate the activity happening today. Through these updates, we do not issue calls to action, but rather strive to arm you with information that improves your advocacy effectiveness around the early learning issues that matter most to you, your family, and your community.

Please forward this legislative update to your early learning network. Updates are also posted on the UWWA website at www.unitedway-wa.org To subscribe, contact Erica Hallock at erica.hallock@unitedway.org.