Putting kids and families first

Can someone, anyone, explain any significant differences between child care. pre-K and kindergarten? The reason I ask is the Minnesota legislature is proposing to spend $500 million on child care subsidies. Meanwhile, as noted by MPR: Analysis: How Minnesota’s school funding leaves the most in-need districts behind. There’s also this recent report from MinnPost: Why $2B in new school funding is leaving Minnesota districts scrambling for cash. Just last session, the good news was: House passes massive K-12 education funding, policy package. That triggered the bad news: Districts worry about cost of new mandates [in the same bill].

“it takes a village to care for and educate a child” 

Photo by J. Harrington

There are continuing references to our school system, but many, especially in the legislature, seem determined to not treat it as a system. It’s largely like playing whack-a-mole. Recent reports raise significant questions about the advisability of providing public funds to charter schools. Rather than repeat that mistake, and rely on the private sector to provide child care, and subsidize that to make it more affordable, why not consider expanding the school system to incorporate childcare and, if it makes sense after a study of the system, make school a year round effort. Many parents have to work year round and need help with supervising children when school’s out. Staffing up for additional children during the summer isn’t likely to work well for a system that has staffing problems right now. Let’s look at better ways to support all Minnesota’s children, families and wage earners by building a real system to serve each and all of them.

Hills of Bureaucracy

Alexandria Peary

In the event
that the engagement 
shall be prevented
by reason of war, 
Act of God, strike, 
civic tumult, epidemic 
or any other cause 
beyond the control 
of either agreeing party, 
which is deemed 
to be “force majeure,” 
the agreed parties 
shall be respectively 
relieved of their obligations
contained herein and 
return to the rolling hills
of bureaucracy, 
a deep green field 
of barley, more hills 
with hay bales, no sky: 
an argyle of crops, 
following emergency exits  
and evacuation plans
to the long and winding 
road that leads
to your door.

That would be 15 A 
on the updated form,
the red door 
with a mat and rack 
for your shoes
of a cottage in the village.
Let the minutes state 
you’ve had a tiresome    
journey through various causes
on the lengthy lavender road
past blaze orange fields
that shall include revolutions,
riots, wars, acts of enemies, 
national state local 
emergency, strikes, 
floods, fires, epidemics, 
quarantine, embargoes, 
or unusually severe weather, 
and that we’re not responsible 
or liable for any loss 
or damage, for delays
in performance 
or failure to perform. 
The 10 point font path
has brought you to the Open Forum
on Comprehensive 
Internationalization, 
where the committee 
invites input from the whole
community about where
we are at and where 
we should go,             
which thatched houses   
for which gas stations
in the settlements of 
educational plans, mission 
statements, internal hiring.
The designated spokesperson 
from the institutional 
advancement office is explaining:
This is a plan for all 
of us. A family reunion 
hosted by Human Resources 
in partnership
with Business Intelligence, 
Focus on Core Academic Function, 
so the member
at the back of the conference room
knitting wooly yarn clouds 
as stress relief
should get a grip.
We’ve all stopped 
our planting in favor 
of administering to 
attend this conference 
on the administration of planting,
Cc: all: the assistant to, vice-, 
associate, interim, acting,
chief, head of, associate director. 
Staples for vineyards. 
Collated construction 
plans are in departmental 
mail boxes. Approving 
the minutes from yesterday,
let’s send the next presenter back 
like a salmon stunned w/ frustration
who weeps with frustration
into the whirling vortex 
of a policy about policy,
a few hay bales, 
shade trees for cattle
or the sub-committee to 
this committee,
though Party 1 is not a fish
but a person who must drive 
back in his rental Kia,
the application form 
was incomplete. 
Next order of business: 
those ornamental wild
grasses planted 
last year for the parade,
tall, on the highway divide
on Route 2 South, 
junction of JFK Boulevard
and South Main, 
a deathtrap or death wish?

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.