Public Policy Co Chairs:
Phil Acord – ppasb4@aol.com
Diane Neighbors – diane.r.neighbors@vanderbilt.edu
Rhonda Laird – Rhonda.laird@vanderbilt.edu
Legislative Advocate:
Stewart Clifton – stewartclifton@comcast.net
This year some of our public policy emphasis has focused on support for the Governor’s legislative initiative, the expansion of Tennessee’s quality pre-K pilot program.The proposal is to add $25 million additional dollars to the existing program. At the time of this writing we are optimistic about the chances of this expansion becoming law. While the past three years has seen tremendous growth in the state funded high quality pre kindergarten program, we know there are still children that need to be served by our high quality program.
This year, Tennessee was recognized as one of the top three states in state funded pre kindergarten. The NIEER report measured each state on 10 benchmarks. Two states met all 10 benchmarks. Tennessee met 9. We are well on our way to being number 1!
TAEYC also worked hard this year to prevent SB2041 and HB1937 from passing. This bill undermines the cooperative success of the pre kindergarten law. It also turns back some of the quality initiaves embedded in the law that keeps Tennessee in the top tier of the Nation with regards to state funded pre k. Since this bill was deferred, we assume that we will be faced with it again next legislative session.
We also monitored a bill that would have weakened curriculum requirements regarding sexual abuse training. We are happy to take credit, whether justified or not, for the fact that this bill was taken off notice.
Our biggest hurdle this year has been to increase funding for DHS child care reimbursements. The state of Tennessee has not had an increase in the past several years and has fallen dramatically behind other states with the percentage of reimbursements for at-risk families who use child care certificates to subsidize their child care tuition. In order for Tennessee child care providers to continue to provide high quality child care programs for ALL children, there will need to be an increase in funds. For this year, TAEYC has been a strong supporter of Representative Janis Sontany’s bill requesting 11.5 million dollars be added to the Department of Human Services budget. Since this year’s general session is going a bit longer than most, there is still uncertainty regarding this bill. If you have not yet contacted your senator and representative, now is definitely the time.
Finally, while the public policy chairs work with our esteemed legislators through meetings, phone calls and emails, the most important people they want to hear from is their own constituents. We cannot stress enough how important it is that when you get an email blast asking you to contact your legislators that you do so…in a timely fashion. We thank each and every one of you who have contacted your representatives, it really makes a difference.
List of important links for public policy:
www.tennessee.gov – For information on the state’s pre-k programs
www.prekfortn.com – for information on the Tennessee’s Alliance and new pre-k legislation for all 4 year olds.
www.votesmart.org – this website will help you identify your elected officials
List of important links for public policy:
www.Tennessee.Gov – For information on the new pre-k legislation
WWW.TNPreK.org – for information on the Governor’s new pre-k legislation for all 4 year olds.
www.results.gpponline.org – The Government Performance Project—this site shows the state’s report card
www.TNDisabilityMegaConference.org – The third annual Disability Mega Conference to be held
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