5 Early Education Questions for Secretary Duncan

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is testifying this morning at 10:00 AM before the House Committee on Education and Labor, about the Obama Administration’s Education Agenda. A live webcast of the hearing will be available on the Committee’s website, here.

This hearing is a good opportunity for members of the committee to ask questions about the administration’s early education policy agenda. Here are a few ideas:

1. Secretary Duncan, the administration has proposed a Zero-to-Five agenda to improve the quality of early care and education services for children from birth through age five. Your agency’s fiscal year 2010 budget request includes new programs, such as Early Learning Challenge Fund and Title I Early Childhood Grants, that are a part of this Zero-to-Five agenda. Can you explain how the administration’s early childhood education agenda fits into your larger education reform agenda? How will you ensure that our nation’s elementary schools are equipped to build on and sustain gains that children make in quality early learning programs?

2. As part of the fiscal year 2010 budget, the administration is proposing to create a new Early Learning Challenge Fund to support states in building early childhood infrastructure, raising the quality of early childhood programs, and coordinating among different programs and services for young children. As proposed, this program would be located within the Department of Education, but most of the existing federal funding for early childhood care and education comes from programs operated by the Department of Health an Human Services, such as CCDBG and Head Start. How will you work with the Secretary of Health and Human Services to ensure coordination between early childhood programs operated by your two departments?

3. The fiscal year 2010 budget proposal includes $500 million in funding to provide matching grants to school districts that use Title I funds received under ARRA to create, expand, or improve the quality of pre-k programs. Your Department, however, has strongly encouraged school districts to be mindful that ARRA funds are only temporary and not to invest them in programs requiring long-term commitments. And the Early Learning Challenge Fund, which could provide an ongoing source of funding support for these programs, has not yet been authorized by Congress. Why should school districts take the risk of investing ARRA funds in pre-k when these investments may not be sustainable? What assurance can you offer districts that they will be able to sustain such investments? How will your Department communicate with districts to encourage them to use ARRA TItle I funds for pre-k programs?

4. During the 2008 campaign, President Obama called for a $10 billion increase in funding for early childhood programs. Given current economic and fiscal conditions, as well as the impacts of the stimulus, do you think this is still a reasonable goal for federal early childhood funding? Is this still the administration’s goal, and if so, what do you think is a reasonable timeline for getting there?

5. Historically, the Department of Education has had a limited role in early childhood education. Programs the administration is proposing to create would significantly expand the Department’s role in early childhood. What kind of structure do you intend to establish or use within the Department to oversee these programs, and how will you ensure coordination across existing early childhood programs that are currently scattered across different offices within the Department?