Thank you Arne! Even the preschoolers get to Race to the Top …for not-enough-money :: THE EARLY LEARNING CHALLENGE APPLICATION

Them that's got shall get
Them that's not shall lose
So the Bible said and it still is news
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child
that's got his own.

-  Billie Holiday / Arthur Herzog Jr.

received as an email from preschool California

August 25, 2011

Dear (your name here),

Take Action

Write the governor's administration asking them to apply for the Early Learning Challenge!

The Federal Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services recently released the final guidelines for the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge application. Should California apply and win, the state would receive $100 million to invest in raising the quality of its early childhood education systems.

The final guidelines reflect changes that states such as California had requested from the initial draft guidelines that came out earlier this summer, including reducing the mandatory requirements in the application and giving states the ability to tailor their early learning system development to their needs. These changes to the competition guidelines help California to be eligible and competitive for an Early Learning Challenge Grant. We must tell the Brown administration to seize this opportunity and apply for an Early Learning Challenge Grant!

California has already been working towards improvements in key components of the application’s requirements, including the development of a Quality Rating Improvement System (QRIS) and connecting early education with the early elementary years. The state would be able to build upon this foundation with additional federal support from the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge. Under the revised guidelines, California will also have more flexibility to work on other areas of system development.

The Early Learning Challenge also requires states to have an Early Learning Advisory Council in place to be eligible. Therefore, immediately reconstituting our state’s Early Learning Advisory Council under the California Department of Education (CDE) is essential. Furthermore, the continuation of the ELAC through the CDE will allow California to optimize its current early learning investments and improve the quality of our early childhood programs.

We must take advantage of this important opportunity and ask the Brown administration to apply for the Early Learning Challenge, as well as continue the ELAC’s crucial efforts by moving it to CDE. Please write to the governor’s administration today!

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www.preschoolcalifornia.org