MinneMinds (Children’s Initiative) Update

Early childhood education has re-surfaced as a major policy initiative both at the federal and state levels. The initiative, called MinneMinds, has been planned out and refined over a period of years and has the support of dozens of Minnesota’s premiere educational organizations and non-profits.

At the Children’s Initiative of the Tzedek committee MinneMinds Policy Agenda Discussion on Sunday, April 7, Barb Yates, Executive Director of Think Small {formerly Resources for Child Caring}, Rob Grunewald, economist at the Federal Reserve, and Kat Kempe, Senior Policy advocate at Think Small made presentation showing the status of early childhood education in Minnesota, the child development research that shows the effectiveness of quality preschool for success in school and in life, and the economic research that shows that investment in early childhood gives a big return to the public and to the children and families themselves. Those who attended the presentation wanted more of the congregation to know about this important topic. Click here to read the MinneMinds Presentation. There were also many questions about the value of all day Kindergarten compared to Preschool education. Click here to see that presentation. Click here to see a video of the presentation.

They also presented the multi-year policy agenda that is being proposed, which you can read here.

The bills to accomplish this have been introduced in the Minnesota House and Senate and have been voted favorably out of the policy committees.  There is some money recommended in the Governor’s budget as well. To read more about these bills, click here and here.