If anyone would have told me back in January that we would still be here on May 17, I would not have believed them! However, here we are and I thought I would bring you up to speed on what we have been doing.
Early Childhood Initiative Passes
House File 761, which establishes a Quality Rating System for childcare and creates tax incentives for both pre-school and childcare passed this week. The bill also establishes the statewide use of a Kindergarten readiness test. The bill outlines the DIBELS test as the recommended method; however there is some flexibility built in for districts who want to use an alternative test, as long as it is approved by the Iowa Department of Education.
The tax incentives are split between pre-school and childcare with $2.3 million allocated for childcare and $2.5 million going towards pre-school. We want to do all we can to help those who most need it and I feel this is one way to do that.
A key piece of the bill is the Quality Rating System that Iowa will implement. It is patterned after Educare, a very successful program used in Colorado.
Educare looks at childcare quality on four fronts: Parent education Public education Quality improvement and Evaluation
This 4 Star Quality Rating System is based on an Environmental Rating Scale ( ECERS) and the Infant/ Toddler Environmental Scale (ITERS), a programís accreditation status; and teacher credentials. This requires evaluation and promotes quality improvement by linking cost to quality. Educare has been very successful in creating market demand for quality early childhood education through parent and public educaton.
Access to quality childcare and pre-school has been one of my priorities for years and I am thrilled that we were able to work together in the Senate and pass legislation that addresses this important issue.
Health & Human Services
I have been spending a majority of my time helping negotiate the Health & Human Services budget. It has been a long and oftentimes difficult process given all the players involved! It is a huge piece of the state budget as it involves the Department of Human Services, The Department of Public Health, The Department of Elder Affairs, Veteranís Affairs and the Veteranís Commission.
We are making headway, but still have a ways to go. I have high hopes that we can finish up next week. We have adjourned for the week and will be back on Monday the 23rd. Like I said, no one imagined that we would be hammering out numbers and ideas this late in the year, but on a positive note, we are getting very important work done and learning a new style of negotiating with the 25/25 split in the Senate!
If any of you need to contact me, I am available at my Kimberly Road office, 359-3624, or you can still send me e-mail at my legislative e-mail address at the top of this newsletter.
Have a great week!
Senator Maggie Tinsman 563.359.3624/515.281.3371 maggie.tinsman@legis.state.ia.us May 17, 2005
