December 2007
Archived Public Policy Report & Alert

Federal | Maryland | MDAEYC
Archived Reports: August 2008 | June 2008 | January2008 | December 2007 | October 2007

Federal:

Please call your US Senators and Representatives today (202) 224-3121, and ask them to hold firm in the negotiations with the President over the appropriations that Congress approved for the Child Care Block Grant and for Head Start. The children really need this money, much more than many other national priorities. Congress passed the Head Start Reauthorization Bill, after several years of delay. The new Bill drops the National Reporting System, which was something that Adele Robinson worked very hard to accomplish. For details, see www.naeyc.org.

Maryland:

The recent special session of the General Assembly was not very good for Maryland's children, but it could have been worse. On the positive side, the refundable earned income tax credit was extended, which will help many low-income families afford child care. On the negative side, the General Assembly did not fill the whole budget gap, but left it to the Governor to make big cuts in this year's and next year's Budgets. The House recommended that the Governor eliminate most of the MSDE-approved increase to the Maryland Infants and Toddler's Program, as well as some other funding that we care for, but the Bill that was passed just left specific cuts to the Governor's discretion. In addition, the General Assembly went along with the Governor's plan to eliminate State support for inflationary adjustments in the cost of education, and cap it for future years. This puts a huge additional burden on the Counties to make up the difference or diminish the quality of education that Maryland's children receive. Many of the Counties also have huge budget gaps for the current and coming years, so we have to do what we can to educate both County and State officials about the priority needs of children for government financial support, especially for the quality and affordability of child care.

The siphoning off of 4 year olds from child care programs to the public schools, especially in P.G. County, has hit the child care community very hard, in that we counted on the income from the 4 year olds to pay for our added expenses for increased staff ratios for younger children. MSDE is about to issue a report to the General Assembly of the Universal Pre-K Task Force, and we hope that it will address this issue positively.

MDAEYC:

MDAEYC joins many others in mourning the death of Sandy Skolnik, Executive Director of the Maryland Committee for Children, on November 21, after a long fight with lung cancer. Sandy was a major force for better lives for a generation of Maryland's children. She will be missed. Steve Rohde is now in charge of the MCC.

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