Sacramento Head Start Alumni Association

Preschool California Action Alert: Comments Requested on Prescho

Jul 26, 2004

July 22, 2004



Preschool-for-All Legislation Goes to Conference Committee: Comments Requested Immediately



Dear Friends of Preschool for All:



AB 56 (Steinberg, Chan, Daucher, Liu), which would create the first ever preschool-for-all framework in California, is now in the Master Plan for Education Conference Committee. The committee set a deadline of Wednesday, July 28th, for receiving written comments on the draft legislation. The time to speak up is now.



The conference committee expects to begin its deliberations in early August. The conferees include Senators Alpert, McPherson, and Scott and Assemblymembers Daucher, Goldberg, and Liu.



An electronic version of AB 56 draft legislation prepared by committee staff is attached above along with a summary of this committee draft legislation prepared by Preschool California.



Comments can be sent via e-mail to master.plan@sen.ca.gov or by mail to the Committee to Develop a Master Plan for Education, 1020 N. Street, Suite 560, Sacramento, CA 95814.



AB 56 was recently referred for consideration along with 4 other two-year Master Plan implementation bills.



The voices of preschool-for-all advocates must be heard now to ensure that AB 56 reflects key principles for a successful preschool-for-all framework. Preschool California encourages individuals to support both features of the proposal that reflect the principles outlined in our Principles for Preschool for All. Please see those principles, attached.



We urge the conference committee to maintain and strengthen the draft legislation to:



?· Maintain a commitment to making preschool available to all 4-year-olds whose parents choose to send them. Initial preschool-for-all funds should be allocated to meet the needs of at-risk children while at the same time encouraging a socio-economic mix of children in the system.



?· Ensure that the preschool-for-all system builds upon the diversity of the existing public and private system including child care centers, family child care homes, Head Start programs and school-based programs.



?· Require administering entities to demonstrate the capacity to develop a broad-based delivery system capable of:



?˜ serving all 4-year-olds whose families wish them to attend;

?˜ maximizing integration with full-day, full-year care;

?˜ including children with special needs;

?˜ meeting the needs of a linguistically diverse preschool population; and

?˜ articulating with the K-12 system.



?· Allow adequate time and financial supports to assure a linguistically diverse and well educated workforce that includes lead teachers with a bachelor?’s degree over time.



?· Develop program parameters that increase compensation for teachers as they raise their level of educational attainment and offer financial incentives for programs to employ teachers with higher levels of educational attainment.



Thank you for speaking up for California children.




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Preschool California is a broad-based, multi-year advocacy campaign to achieve voluntary preschool for all 4-year-olds in California. For more information, please visit our website at www.preschoolcalifornia.org or contact us at getinvolved@preschoolcalifornia.org.



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