Heard in the Forum: Voicing Frustrations With Funding Streams

Following the Early Education Initiative’s “Before Birth and Up Through Third Grade” policy forum on March 2, we launched an online discussion space to continue the conversations that began that day. This week we posted a short video clip from the face-to-face forum that encapsulates many of the tough issues that early education providers grapple with on a regular basis.

The video clip features Steven Dow, executive director of the Community Action Project of Tulsa County, saying that “it doesn’t ever feel that any of the funders actually insist that braiding or better coordination of funds happen.”

Do you agree? Is this a role that state and federal agencies should play? What about private foundations? And how would policies need to be changed for state and federal agencies to do this effectively?

Some people are already offering comments about how blending and braiding funding streams could lead to easier enrollment for families and to more integrated and inclusive classrooms. But the question remains: Is there an operational cost to doing all this braiding and blending? Is it worth the contortions that some providers must go through to make it possible?

We invite and encourage you to share your experiences, insight, and questions. In addition, we’ve added some new resources and are seeking your expertise about thoughtful reports on assessment. We know this is a controversial and fraught area, but we also know that a lot of smart and thoughtful people have written reports that can help community providers and school districts as they figure out when, if, how and why they should evaluate young children’s progress. We want to make sure we’re capturing the latest info. Please share your suggestions.

Log on to the online forum to join this discussion or to start another. 

The online forum is organized around topics like funding, teacher quality, family engagement,and more. Early Ed Watch hopes it can become a useful resource and gathering spot for interested parties at the local, state and federal level. We invite you to join the discussion. You can do so by creating a login at http://earlyedforum.newamerica.net/forum.

Hope to see you online!