EARLY LEARNING BILLS ON MOVE, DESPITE SPAR OVER STANDARDS

By MARGIE MENZEL
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Feb. 20, 2012.... Governance of a billion-dollar business is the subject of a heated debate this session, but it’s mostly been under the radar – until now, as bills revamping school readiness programs reach the House and Senate floors this week.

Supporters of the overhaul say they want to get more children off the state’s waiting list of 75,000 and tighten oversight in the wake of erroneous payments to program participants. Critics say the revamp is driven by for-profit providers who want to collect more fees for more children by lowering the quality of educational services, which are more expensive.

"We talk about all these things we want to do…If we had all the money in the world, we could take care of them," said David Daniel of the Florida Association of Child Care Management, which backs several revamp bills. "But we don’t. We have to prioritize."

And the priority should be getting more kids into the program, he told lawmakers. "Are you okay with serving 10,000 less children in 2011 than you did in 2010?"

The bills in play will increase the number of children served by the program, although it’s unclear by how many – and critics say that will lessen the attention each child gets.

“We’ll be warehousing children again,” said Theresa Little, director of Christ the King Child Care in the Jacksonville area and an Early Learning Coalition of Duval board member.

After nearly two hours of debate Thursday, one such measure passed the House Economic Affairs Committee, 11-6 on a party-line vote. Sponsored by Rep. Larry Ahern, R-Seminole, it’s one of five bills that would restructure the Office of Early Learning and the 31 early learning coalitions statewide.

Daniel said that by increasing the number of children served, it can help more parents get back to work.

But Sam Bell, a lobbyist for health and human service interests, said a lowering of standards will gut the learning component at the very age – infancy to 5 – when a child’s brain acquires 90 percent of its growth.

"It doesn’t help the children, it doesn’t help the economy, and it’s very short-sighted," Bell said. "In a year or two, these children are going to have to go to kindergarten, and we’re going to have to be in remediation for them (anyway) throughout most of their education life."

While increasing enrollment is one of the main thrusts of the legislation, the early learning program first came under scrutiny because of an Auditor General’s report in December that
faulted the office and ten local coalitions for wrongly paying early learning subsidies to people who weren't eligible. Ahern said cutting down on fraud is the main reason for his bill (HB 7119).

Critics say, however, that in cracking down on the Office of Early Learning and the local coalitions, the bills open things up for private providers.

"The bill does diminish quality in early learning," Ted Granger, president of the United Way of Florida, told the Economic Affairs Committee. "It ratchets up the accountability for the early learning coalitions, and that’s good, but it diminishes significantly the accountability of providers."

Supporters of Ahern’s bill pointed out that the state Department of Children and Families already licenses child care providers, providing plenty of oversight.

The Office of Early Learning also has a new director, Mel Jurado, who has been called a Pollyanna for describing the audit as a "wonderful gift" for a new director.

"I’m moving us in a slightly different direction, to really look at strong governance, to look at strong measurement, to make sure that what we’re doing has a return on investment," she said. "It’s not about warehousing children – it’s about measuring gains."

Since 1999, the federal-state School Readiness Program has provided early education and child care to the offspring of low-income families, children at risk of abuse and children with disabilities. The December audit found that OEL did not conduct data matches between the program and the state's unemployment insurance payments. Data matching is hobbled because the Early Learning Information System (ELIS) is behind schedule - moved back to 2013. Jurado said getting the system in place would greatly reduce fraud by program participants.

But her response failed to satisfy those driving the overhaul bills.

The audit did not find fraud by the OEL, the early learning coalitions or their staffers.

"The findings that you’re talking about with the Auditor General are not major, major findings," said Rep. Jim Waldman, D-Coconut Creek. "In a billion-dollar business, they were minor."

Colleagues also questioned Ahern about his bill’s impact on the current ability of early learning coalitions to screen children for hearing, vision and developmental delays. Instead, Ahern said, under his bill the provider or parent could request a screening.

"Parents would be the first to notice [a disability], I would think," he said. "Why would we want a child to be screened without parental consent?"

Rep. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, said many parents, especially the working poor served by the school readiness programs, often lack the education to know if their infants or toddlers need a screening – or that they’re entitled to it.

Ahern’s and the other early learning bills also include standardized provider payment rates, capped administrative costs, pre- and post-assessment of children in the programs and beefed-up anti-fraud measures.

The other bills include:
-SB 1974 by the Senate Budget Committee, originally SPB 7080 by Sen. David Simmons, R-Maitland. It’s expected to be heard on the Senate floor Thursday.

- SB 1758 by Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, in the Senate Education Pre-K Committee.

-HB 5103 by Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna, passed by the full House 85-34 on Feb. 9.

-PCB KCOS 12-01 by the House K-20 Competitiveness Subcommittee, now on second reading; originally HB 7085 Rep. Erik Fresen, R-Miami.

Simmons’ bill is considered the best by critics of the overhaul, said Alisa Ghazvini of the Association of Early Learning Coalitions. "It upholds the educational standards, so that we make sure children are ready for school while at the same time supporting parents that work."

Critics say lawmakers should move cautiously.

Ahern's bill, noted Granger, came up three weeks into session. "We would urge you to hold off on passing something this major on a billion-dollar program until we have more time to do it right," he said.