Jackson Jambalaya

Seems reasonable.

Crap. $3.5 Million??? Hard to believe.

$3.5 got MS another $2.2 million? That's not a bad return on investment.

But, I do want to know what they are doing for the money.

One thing they're doing with the money is using it to make even more!

You can follow CEI's return on investment in the State Early Child Care Advisory Council's minutes, reports, and archives http://www.mdhs.state.ms.us/eccd_secac.html

...and, from there to the State's Plan for the use of the federal CCDF Block Grant and the @2 million dollar-a-year grant to CEI for Allies in Quality Child Care.

The Godwin contract included market research on the most effective way to pitch early childhood education to different subgroups of the State's population, including conservatives. Must have been pretty good stuff because Phil Bryant bought it and is driving the train through the Capitol that's pushing legislation to child care licensing from the Department of Health to the Department of Human Services down the fast track and getting the State on the right track for round 2 of the Early Learning "Race to the Top".

Kingfish, keep fishing and do let us know the relationship between this group and the MEC Blueprint.

Hey KF, I'm very familar with this organization.

Recently the Mississippi Department of Human Services took the childcare assistance program away from the planning & development districts (I work for one) to run it "in-house". Supposedly this was to save money, but in reality the head of the MDHS Department of Early Childhood Care and Development has been pushing for a change to a more structured program with strict oversight by the MSU Early Childhood Institute. The director of the Early Childhood Institute was Cathy Grace who is now on the board of directors of CEI.

In the process, DHS awarded a $1,000,000 to CEI for running the Alies for Quality Care program in fiscal year 2011 and their budget for Fiscal Year 2012 indicates they are getting another $2,000,000. You can see what that program is by going here: http://www.mdhs.state.ms.us/eccd_qualenhance1.html

If you look at the history of CEI, it was originally named Mississippi Center for Education Innovation. The corporate charter stated it was for the exclusive benefit of the Department of Education. It was dissolved and reformed as The Center for Education Innovation sometime in late 2010, not coincidentally the time MDHS started funneling large sums of money toward them in support of early childhood regulations.

Something fishy is going on. DHS is spending a ton of money on this organization in conjunction with forcing their regulations on childcare centers.

This is basically charter schools at the preschool level.

Dr. Jill Dent at MDHS would be the person who orchestrated all of this, but good luck getting any kind of comment from her.

To make things even more confusing, if you look at their balance sheet on page 11, they show $7,728,294 in investments and $7,701,620 of "Deferred Revenue" last year. That pretty much magically disappears this year. Who gave them almost $8 million to hold and where did it go? If it was MDE, I would think there would be serious problem paying $8 million up front for services not yet provided.

Re Comment @ 7:52pm

"This is basically charter schools at preschool level" - not my take at all.

This group is all about public schools at the preschool level. Check the Kellogg-funded SPARK program.

Remember, Tollison's committee added an amendment allowing Charter Schools to operate pre-kindergarten programs.

No surprise that during the debate on the Senate floor, someone suggested giving public schools the same blanket authority. And, of course, that would require money for higher education teacher preparation programs, too.

Apparently, there is no proposal or project, with or without merit, that can't be turned into a money making scheme by an elected official and his cronies.

And, each political party will defend their own and be shockingly aghast when the other party does the same thing.

Did anyone really think those most actively interested in charters weren't in it for the enjoyment of monetary profits? Sure some may be former educators. Sure they consider the value of a child's education but they are also the ones who know education is a tremendous money-maker. How else could little poor ole Mississippi support 8 major four-year universities and 15 two-year institutions?

Um yeah. Some of us really are angry we are always in dead last place, see a school system that is a failure by any standards, want this state to do better, and are tired of politicians and bureaucrats making excuses.

The only way Mississippi will ever advance is to improve early childhood education - through strict enforcement of quality and educational standards - which will then trickle into the school systems. The Planning and Development Districts have been milking the tax payers way too long and end up in business functions without accountability. It is time we improve education. State with the Parents and Childcare centers

KF I think we need to look first at the systemic problems. 9:17 am is right and the three of us agree on the importance of education.

We don't have school districts or universities or community colleges , we have little fiefdoms.

We need a statewide vision and restructuring.

Consolidation should be the first thing on the table as a poor state especially must maximize limited dollars and resources.

The second thing should be to build oversight and accountability into the system.

The third thing we need to do is shift focus to the student and parent as the " target market" so that their time and money isn't wasted but results in careers and employment.

Successful models exist for accomplishing all these tasks. We don't need to reinvent the wheel, we just need to shop for the right wheel for us.

We can't continue to pay for programs , for example, welding or nurse's aides at junior colleges , and accept/graduate three times more students than there are jobs especially in skills that have no mobility.

We should be identifying and then targeting needs and creating programs that fill those needs. Some programs have too many students and others not enough and some needed programs don't exist.

We need to identify at risk children early and get them the help/tools needed so they have a chance to succeed. Teachers are not therapists or medically trained.

Our Board system is not working for too many reasons to list here but primarily because they are not structured to function effectively. They are advocacy boards not oversight boards.

Putting charter schools into the current system is just going to introduce a new money making /power base opportunity.

Unfortunately, our legislature has been afraid to take on education as they see the educational " leaders" in each district and at each college and junior college much like they see the preachers at big churches...a person(s) who can deliver votes or take them away when the time comes for re-election.

Too many benefit from the status quo and unfortunately, they are the ones who tend to influence the dialogue.

"systemic problems"

That is by far my favorite Democratic-Liberal-Communistic - so called "progressive"
catch phrase.

I also like the current pop culture phrase "baby daddy" .

Therefore I ask this question :

" Do the Liberals consider the baby dady a part of the systemic problem " ????