Rep: On Early Ed It’s About How-To’s, Not Should We's – State House News Service
By Sam Drysdale
After a sweeping early education and child care access bill cleared one branch but not the other last session, one of the bill's cosponsors is hopeful about support for the measure this time around…
Rep. Ken Gordon of Bedford, who is co-sponsoring the House's version of the bill this time around (H 489), said there has been a lot of support from fellow representatives. So far, there are 81 co-sponsors on the House bill and 24 on the Senate bill, according to Amy O'Leary of Strategies for Children.
That's a majority in each branch, but the bill's timeline for debate remains murky. Joint committees have missed their deadline to adopt operating rules, the bill hasn't been scheduled for a public hearing, and legislative leaders have given no indication that they are in a rush to take up the legislation.
"You can see the number of co-sponsors on the bill, the number of my colleagues who have signed on," Gordon said. "I think it's a priority for all of us, it's a question of looking into the details about where the funding comes from, how it's going to be organized and arranged and really just the 'how to's.' It's not about the 'should we's' it's the 'how to's'."
The House and Senate (S 301) versions of the bill are similar to the version the Joint Committee on Education passed last session, according to Andrew Farnitano, spokesperson for the early care advocacy group Common Start Coalition.
Both versions would expand subsidies for families to send their child to early care or education programs, permanently establish "direct-to-provider" funding for operating costs, and offer higher salaries and expanded professional development opportunities for early educators.