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2015 Regular Session
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 174
BY REPRESENTATIVE MORENO
A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
To urge and request the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, in consultation
with stakeholders which include but are not limited to the Advisory Council on Early
Care and Education, to identify sources of state and federal funds available in
Louisiana for early childhood care and education, as well as additional potential
funding sources used by other states for such purpose, and submit to the House
Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education a written proposal
of funding mechanisms and a corresponding strategy for implementation of the
eighty million dollar funding model developed in response to House Concurrent
Resolution No. 61 of the 2014 Regular Session of the Legislature.
WHEREAS, the legislature passed Act No. 3 of the 2012 Regular Session of the
Legislature (Act 3), which requires the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education
(BESE) to create a comprehensive and integrated network through which to manage and
oversee all programs funded through state or federal resources that provide early childhood
care or educational services; and
WHEREAS, the legislature expressed its intent that a comprehensive and integrated
delivery system for early childhood care and education be created to ensure that every child
enters kindergarten healthy and ready to learn; and
WHEREAS, BESE, the state Department of Education, and the Department of
Children and Family Services have worked diligently and collaboratively to implement the
provisions of Act 3, including the integration of standards and expectations across publicly
funded early childhood care and education programs and the support of regional pilot
programs; and
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WHEREAS, the implementation of Act 3 has appropriately focused on increasing
the quality of care and education, preparing children for kindergarten, and honoring family
choices; and
WHEREAS, it is imperative that all publicly funded early childhood care and
education programs offer high quality care and education to families, providing a safe,
nurturing environment for children and preparing all children for kindergarten; and
WHEREAS, the quality of care and education is determined, in large part, by the
ability of early learning centers to employ capable individuals as caregivers and teachers;
and
WHEREAS, publicly funded early childhood care and education programs in
Louisiana are not currently funded equitably, contributing to the inability of some early
learning centers and programs to meet the state's quality standards and its expectation that
children will be ready for kindergarten; and
WHEREAS, fewer than thirty percent of at-risk children ages birth to four in
Louisiana have access to a publicly funded early childhood care and education program; and
WHEREAS, Louisiana currently appropriates no state general fund money and no
Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) money to early care and education
services for children under age four; and
WHEREAS, the state should make every reasonable attempt to equitably fund family
choices to the fullest extent possible and to offer high quality options as families select
publicly funded early childhood care and education; and
WHEREAS, HCR No. 61 of the 2014 Regular Session of the Legislature requested
BESE to develop a statewide model for the funding of and equitable distribution of public
funds for quality early childhood care and education for Louisiana children, ages birth to
five, whose families request such services, and to submit a written report relative to such
model to the legislature prior to the 2015 Regular Session; in response to this Resolution,
BESE developed a funding model that was presented to the legislature in a report to the
House and Senate education committees (the report); and
WHEREAS, the report defined three major challenges in the implementation of Act
3, including upgrading quality as child care funding is too low to ensure adequate teaching,
creating equity as the state investment in Pre-K is less than the state investment in
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kindergarten, and increasing access as there are not enough Pre-K seats for all at-risk
families who want one; and
WHEREAS, the report estimated the cost of addressing these challenges to be eighty
million dollars; however, the report did not define specific funding mechanisms nor how this
funding might be phased in; and
WHEREAS, there is an urgent need to address the early childhood care and
education funding gaps in the state, as the full implementation of Act 3 is mandated to begin
in the 2015-2016 school year, and only fifty-four percent of children in Louisiana who are
entering kindergarten are considered ready for kindergarten.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
urge and request the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, in consultation
with stakeholders, which include but are not limited to the Advisory Council on Early Care
and Education, to identify funding sources of state and federal funds available in Louisiana
to be used for early childhood care and education, as well as additional potential funding
sources used by other states for such purpose, and submit a written report to the House
Committee on Education and the Senate Committee on Education.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that such report, which BESE shall submit to these
committees by January 15, 2016, shall include a proposal of specific funding mechanisms
and a corresponding strategy for implementation of the eighty million dollar funding model
developed in response to House Concurrent Resolution No. 61 of the 2014 Regular Session
of the Legislature.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a suitable copy of this Resolution be transmitted
to the president of the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and the state
superintendent of education.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
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