Why is this important?
The current push is for UPK potentially costing $500 Million and a waste of money.

Summary
Based on research provided on this website, UPK is not the solution to solving the Achievement Gap.

Solving Minnesota’s Achievement Gap

Step 1 

“Coordinating Early Education Funding Streams” Close Gaps by 5

Currently, Minnesota uses a confusing array of at least seven different funding streams to pay for early education program access for children under age 5, including:
• Childcare Assistance Program or CCAP ($144 million per year)
• Early Learning Scholarships – Pathway I ($41 million per year)
• Early Learning Scholarships – Pathway II ($29 million per year)
• Head Start and Early Head Start ($128 million per year)
• School Readiness ($34 million per year)
• School Readiness Plus ($3 million per year)
• Universal (Voluntary) Pre-K ($37 million per year)
Total $416,000,000
The total cost of assisting all 35,000 impoverished children with year-round high-quality daycare $420,000,000

The additional problem is these programs are not being moderated to determine success or failure, According to the Legislative Audit report of April 2018 and the StarTribune article of June 1, 2019. These documents are available on this website.

The funding should be rolled into one entity and housed at the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

Step 2

A short manual would provide new parents with Best Practices for educating their children. It could also contain other information covering:
• How children communicate from birth.
• How infants learn.
• When to start helping your child learn.
• What to expect at different stages in the child’s life.
• Nutritional needs of children by age.
Contacting new families in maternity wards affords an opportunity to provide education to new families. It also includes information on state services that are available.
Contact with families would be provided by volunteers already in the hospitals. This is the only spot that nearly 100% of families can be reached.

Step 3

Develop an app that assists parents to help their children learn English. Tie it into a website that could be used in libraries for those without smartphones.

Step 4

Provide information on an easily navigable website. The goal of the site is to provide a reliable source of information for the parents. The site would provide information in multiple languages.
It is my belief that immigrants who are in this country would like to learn English. A site designed to help teach infants and toddlers to speak English may assist the entire family.

Step 5

State funding for Year-Round daycare for children in poverty.

Step 6

The daycare industry is not meeting the needs around the state. Research the viability of a Non-Profit Franchisor providing support for Non-Profit Franchisees daycare centers.