Major childcare and early learning scholarship bills are merging and morphing rapidly as they move through state legislative committees towards enactment.
HF1277/SF1276 funds early learning scholarships for all eligible children up to age five, while HF2039/SF2215 increases childcare rates, eliminates the waitlist, and invests in childcare infrastructure and staffing.
Each year we support early learning scholarships because they reduce child maltreatment by up to 50%, as was first shown in this research by University of Minnesota’s Arthur Reynolds. And childcare eases strains on families, which research also shows reduces child maltreatment
These bills will fund childcare and early learning scholarships for every child and family who needs them. Please click on our emails with messages and links that help you contact your legislators, and encourage them to support the bills so they get to votes on the floors of the House and Senate.
Arthur Reynolds’ work did not show that early learning scholarships reduce child maltreatment. His work was specifically about a high-quality early learning program offered in public schools through teachers with four year degrees. The Office of the Legislative Auditor in 2018 pointed out that there has been no impact evaluation of the scholarships.
Art Rolnick once wrote an op-ed in 2012 claiming that the scholarships reduced teen pregnancy, when the students who participated in the pilot were only about 7 years old.
You and Rolnick both are making a mistake in having lobbyists ghost-write your policy work for you. This is not the first time I have pointed out that your statements linking early learning scholarships to reductions in maltreatment are not correct. There is reason to believe that high-quality early learning experiences with a focus on parental involvement offered by teachers with four year degrees can reduce maltreatment. There is no such evidence for the scholarship program in general.
Judy Temple