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Minnesota House of Representatives

State Representative John Ward

375 State Office BuildingState Office Building
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-4333

For more information contact: Sandy Connolly 651-296-8877

Posted: 2007-02-20 00:00:00
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BRAINERD EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAMS FEATURED IN HOUSE COMMITTEE

ST. PAUL, MN – Three area residents who work in the Early Childhood field were invited to present information about their programs to members of the House Early Childhood Committee last week. They came to the State Capitol at the request of State Representative John Ward (DFL-Brainerd).
Steve Razidlo, Assistant Superintendent of the Brainerd School District, Connie Nelson, Director of Early Childhood Family Education Special Education, and Tammy Filippi, Director of the Early Childhood Coalition, all provided an overview of their programs. They offered the committee members information about the successes of their programs, as well as the challenges they face.
"All three of these individuals are a wealth of information about the educational challenges that come with early childhood education," said Ward. "The committee members said their presentations were very helpful."
In particular, the three were able to identify the differences between the needs of Early Childhood programs in rural Minnesota as compared to metro and suburban programs.
"For instance, the cost of getting our kids to and from our programs is much more significant than in the cities," said Ward. "These costs emphasize our need for consistent funding for rural transportation."
Over the past few years, early childhood education initiatives such as Head Start have been cut by many millions of dollars, and the per-pupil funding formula was dramatically cut. According to Ward, our state now dedicates only 0.5 percent of our state budget to quality early childhood programs. In 2005, just 2 percent of our states 4-year-olds had access to some type of state-sponsored preschool, compared with 11 percent in Colorado, 29 percent in Wisconsin and 17 percent nationally.
"If you ask Minnesotans about the issues that matter most to them, more often than not education is at the top of the list," said Ward. "Early childhood programs in particular have been shown to provide one of the greatest dollar for dollar returns of any investment the state makes.
This session, I am supporting legislation that will restore some of the cuts to Early Childhood Family Education. It's time to strengthen our commitment to our youngest learners."

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