Legislature(2007 - 2008)BUTROVICH 205
02/26/2007 01:30 PM Senate HEALTH, EDUCATION & SOCIAL SERVICES
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SJR1 | |
| Presentation: Investing in Alaska's Children | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| += | SJR 1 | TELECONFERENCED | |
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
SENATE HEALTH, EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SERVICES STANDING COMMITTEE
February 26, 2007
1:33 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Bettye Davis, Chair
Senator Joe Thomas, Vice Chair
Senator John Cowdery
Senator Kim Elton
Senator Fred Dyson
MEMBERS ABSENT
All members present
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 1
Relating to reauthorization of federal funding for children's
health insurance; and encouraging the Governor to support
additional funding for and access to children's health
insurance.
MOVED SJR 1 OUT OF COMMITTEE
PRESENTATION: Investing in Alaska's Children
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
BILL: SJR 1
SHORT TITLE: MEDICAL ASSISTANCE FOR CHILDREN
SPONSOR(s): SENATOR(s) DAVIS
02/07/07 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
02/07/07 (S) HES, FIN
02/19/07 (S) HES AT 1:30 PM BUTROVICH 205
02/19/07 (S) Bill Postponed To 2/26/07
02/26/07 (S) HES AT 1:30 PM BUTROVICH 205
WITNESS REGISTER
Richard Benavides, Aide
to Senator Davis
Alaska State Capitol
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented SJR 1 on behalf of the sponsor.
Karleen Jackson, Commissioner
Department of Health & Social Services
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: In support of SJR 1.
Carol Prentice, Project Manager
System for Early Education Development (SEED)
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Participated in overview.
Jim Calvin, Partner
McDowell Group
Anchorage, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Participated in overview.
Joy Lyon, Director
Southeast Alaska Association for the Education of Young Children
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Participated in overview.
Abbe Hensley, Executive Director
Ready to Read, Ready to Learn Initiative
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Participated in overview.
Debbie Baldwin, Child Development Division Director
Rural Alaska Community Action Program
Anchorage, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Participated in presentation.
Anne Shade, President
Alaska Head Start Association
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Participated in presentation.
Tiffany Ryan, Executive Director
Alaska Association for the Education of Young Children
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Participated in overview.
ACTION NARRATIVE
CHAIR BETTYE DAVIS called the Senate Health, Education and
Social Services Standing Committee meeting to order at 1:33:31
PM. Present at the call to order were Senators Dyson, Cowdery,
Elton, and Chair Davis. Senator Thomas arrived during the course
of the meeting.
SJR 1-MEDICAL ASSISTANCE FOR CHILDREN
1:33:49 PM
CHAIR DAVIS announced SJR 1 to be up for consideration.
RICHARD BENAVIDES, aide to Senator Davis, sponsor of SJR 1,
explained that the resolution urges the congressional delegation
to achieve a timely reauthorization of the state children's
health insurance program, and to continue federal medical
assistance percentages for the Denali Kid Care program. Denali
Kid Care is Alaska's version of the State Children's Health
Insurance Program (SCHIP) which was created in 1997 and is
slated for reauthorization this year. It has been and continues
to be a successful state partnership now covering over four
million low-income children, and enjoys bi-partisan support.
However, in the upcoming fiscal year, 17 to 18 states, including
Alaska, are predicted to have insufficient federal funding to
sustain the existing SCHIP programs. According to various
estimates, these states will face an estimated $800 to $950
million shortfall in 2007. In Alaska, that could total over $12
million. Without additional federal funding to avert these
shortfalls, Alaska may have to reduce SCHIP enrollment. States
may also be forced to curtail benefits, increase cost-sharing,
or reduce provider payments. Congress has successfully acted in
the past to address these shortfalls and can do so again; to
rd
that end, on February 23 a bipartisan group of lawmakers
announced their proposal to extend health insurance to an
additional nine million children in the US. Backed by a broad
consumer and industry coalition, the Healthy Kids Act of 2007
would authorize over $50 billion over five years to expand SCHIP
and Medicaid programs. The proposal would also provide $10
billion to help families with annual incomes of up to 350
percent of the Federal Poverty Level to purchase health
insurance that covers children if they are not eligible for
their state's SCHIP program.
He asked for the committee's support of SJR 1 to add the Alaska
State Legislature to the many voices urging the state's
congressional delegation and the rest of Congress to enact
legislation immediately that provides additional funding to
ensure that all states have sufficient federal funding to
sustain their existing SCHIP programs in fiscal year 2007.
He added that the National Governor's Association had a meeting
the previous day on the same program, and that there is an
upcoming roundtable discussion on the SCHIP program in
Washington DC.
1:37:57 PM
KARLEEN JACKSON, Commissioner for the Department of Health and
Social Services (DHSS), said that both the governor and Senator
Murkowski support the resolution.
SENATOR ELTON said that the problem appears to be two-pronged,
with the 2007 shortfall and insufficient future funding, and
asked if the resolution should address this.
MR. BENAVIDES replied that these were separate issues but that a
bipartisan bill would cover future funding shortfalls.
COMMISSIONER JACKSON said that the redistribution issue is also
being discussed in Congress and Alaska will not necessarily be
penalized for a nationwide insufficient effort.
SENATOR ELTON asked if any wording should be added to the
resolution.
1:40:37 PM
COMMISSIONER JACKSON said she could not speak to that issue.
CHAIR DAVIS said that the resolution deals only with
reauthorization and not funding.
SENATOR COWDERY asked if funding is expected to be federal or
state-based.
MR. BENAVIDES replied that the money will come from the general
fund.
SENATOR COWDERY commented that there is a lot of money in the
Permanent Fund account and this would be a worthy expenditure.
CHAIR DAVIS said that funding will be addressed at a later time.
1:43:35 PM
SENATOR DYSON said that his family members have received funding
from this act, and he didn't believe he had a conflict of
interest with the bill.
CHAIR DAVIS agreed.
SENATOR ELTON moved to report SJR 1 from committee with
individual recommendations and attached fiscal note(s). There
being no objection, the motion carried.
^PRESENTATION: INVESTING IN ALASKA'S CHILDREN
CHAIR DAVIS announced the next order of business was a
presentation.
1:45:13 PM
CAROL PRENTICE, Project Manager for the System for Early
Education Development (SEED), introduced herself and her co-
presenters. The SEED council is in its final year of funding and
decided to do an economic impact report this year.
JIM CALVIN, partner with the McDowell Group, said his group has
studied the economic impact of nearly every industry in Alaska,
and the DEED study was the first of its kind in the state. He
said that the childcare studied was for children six years of
age and under, and did not include summer or other types of
camps. Household expenditures, government expenditures, and the
availability of service were all considered in the study.
He listed the demographics for the study group, including age,
occupation and household size. One in eight Alaskan households
has a child under the age of six in a childcare setting, and
this demographic is growing faster than all others. The
availability of child care services in Alaska means an enlarged
labor force and thus a significant economic impact: 7,400 jobs
in Alaska are related to the child-care sector, generating $124
million yearly in payroll. The wages for workers in this sector
are, however, relatively dismal: a full-time worker will earn
$21,000 yearly, while the average wage for the Alaskan economy
is around $38,000.
He cited national surveys to show that children in quality
childcare programs have higher graduation and college attendance
rates, and ultimately earned more; lower rates of crime and
welfare dependence result as well. The study also asked
questions about the government and its approach to childcare.
He then showed a table of different child-care settings and
their incidence among the sample pool, and another slide showing
the difficulty in obtaining child care. 35 percent of households
said that the cost, quality, or non-availability of childcare
services prevented them from working as much as they would like.
Rural Alaska showed a significant difficulty in obtaining good
quality child care. He explained that the average child-care
cost for a kid under 6 years of age is $400 to $700 per month.
2:03:58 PM
SENATOR COWDERY asked if childcare for infants is more costly
than for older children.
MR. CALVIN replied that it is. He said that the study also
showed that 87 percent of Alaskans think it is important for the
government to provide aid for childcare and early education.
Invariably, however, K-12 funding is considered the most
important.
He explained that Alaskan households spend $150 million yearly
on childcare services, with an additional $75 million in federal
and $13.3 million in state funding. Roughly half of state and
federal funding is spent on Head Start programs; of the total
$238 million spent yearly on child care, $226 million goes to
providers.
2:08:19 PM
MS. PRENTICE said that Alaska is one of only 10 states without a
state-funded early childhood education system.
SENATOR DYSON asked how the study tracked the positive outcomes
of early childhood education.
MR. CALVIN replied that such studies have been done nationally,
but not in Alaska.
SENATOR DYSON asked how the national studies were controlled.
MR. CALVIN said that he did not know the specifics of the
studies, but they are considered to be credible.
SENATOR DYSON asked how positive economic impact in Alaska was
defined by the study.
MR. CALVIN restated the positive impacts, and said that there is
no specific data for Alaska that shows child data.
SENATOR DYSON said that good parenting can have just as positive
an impact as early child education, and children who do not
receive early education are not necessarily at a disadvantage.
He commented that few people would not find childcare to be a
high priority, and asked how the study accounted for this.
MR. CALVIN explained that the data is properly weighed to
represent a cross-section of Alaskans, including those without
children.
SENATOR DYSON asked if comparative questions were asked.
MR. CALVIN said that the study was primarily economically based.
2:15:20 PM
SENATOR ELTON asked for the number of people providing unpaid
childcare services in Alaska, such as family members and
friends.
MR. CALVIN said that such work is not documented because the
criteria are unclear.
SENATOR ELTON said that he suspects there is a high number of
such providers in the state.
2:17:10 PM
CHAIR DAVIS thanked Mr. Calvin and asked to hear the second part
of the presentation.
MS. PRENTICE directed the committee's attention to a document
outlining the effort of five groups, including the Alaska
Childcare Resource and Referral Network; the Ready to Read,
Ready to Learn Initiative (RTR/RTL); the Alaska Association for
the Education of Young Children; Alaska Head Start Directors
Association; and the System for Early Education Development, to
improve childcare in Alaska. She said the presentation would be
addressing these groups' recommendations for early care and
education.
ABBE HENSLEY, Executive Director for the RRRLI, said that the
initiative is co-managed by the Alaska Humanities Forum and
United Way. The initiative was started to combat low literacy
rates, and results in long-term economic benefits.
She said that the majority of Alaskans support early child
education, and families have been at the heart of the RRRLI
effort; increasing their engagement is the first recommendation
of the initiative. The second recommendation is to increase
access to voluntary and affordable child care and early
education. A third recommendation is the establishment of a
sustainable early childhood literacy and learning system with
accountability for outcomes. In 2006 the legislature
appropriated $250,000 to the initiative, and currently the
governor's budget includes $1.5 million in funding for the RRRLI
recommendations; the initiative is planning work on early
learning guidelines, which outline expectations for children's
progress up to five years of age. The RRRLI wishes to see these
guidelines made available in other languages for parents, and to
see community conversations held to bring families together.
They also wish to see support for the RRRLI offices, and the
implementation of a quality ratings system to support early care
and education systems as they improve in quality.
She cited a quote from the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems
Plan to explain the RRRLI's ultimate goals for child care in
Alaska. She said that parents are a child's first and best
teacher, and they need to be taught simple, quick methods for
improving early learning.
JOY LYON, Director for the Southeast Alaska Association for the
Education of Young Children, said that child care involves a lot
of parent decision-making, and resources for these parents are
incredibly important. A quality ratings system, including
teacher quality ratings, would be highly beneficial for
consistency in childcare. In 2007 the RRRLI launched a pilot
quality rating system to measure the improvements within the
system. Measuring program quality is critical to improving the
system as whole, and shaping it into a learning tool for
parents.
2:39:23 PM
SENATOR DYSON said that the ratings system assumes that parents
are incapable of analyzing child care themselves, and that in
many parts of Alaska there is a family tradition of childcare
that wouldn't mesh with the system.
MS. LYON agreed that there are many variations throughout
different communities, but that studies show that even rural
communities have problems with child care services.
MS. HENSLEY added that the system would be voluntary.
2:44:07 PM
DEBBIE BALDWIN, Child Development Division (CDD) Director for
the Rural Alaska Community Action Program, said that the CDD
serves over 24 communities, predominately in rural Alaska, using
Head Start and Parents as Teachers programs.
2:44:39 PM
ANNE SHADE, President of the Alaska Head Start Association, said
that Head Start has 17 grantees in all corners of the state,
serving 3600 children, and it promotes social readiness for at-
risk children through educational, health, and social services.
Several different models of Head Start are used, serving
different age levels. Over 800 children are on the Head Start
waitlist.
2:48:02 PM
MS. BALDWIN said that Head Start has 42 years of experience
across the nation, with 1,800 performance standards and
congressionally mandated outcomes. It provides parent training
programs, based on the theory of shared governance; cultural
differences are accounted for and accommodated. Head Start
receives federal and state aid, but funding has flat-lined in
the past several years. 728 Alaskan Head Start students are
English language learners, and 113 required mental health
assessment. Over 400 students are special needs, half of whom
had not been previously identified. Head Start students
experience a 16 to 48 percent learning gain through the program.
She said that the major challenge facing Head Start is flat-
lined funding, which has led to an 11 percent decrease in
purchasing power. There has also been a reduction in the number
of children served, especially in rural Alaska. Six communities
have closed Head Start services completely. A more economical
model of services has been developed to place more emphasis on
home-based services, which are less costly. Still, 12,000 to
15,000 children are income-eligible for Head Start across the
state but are not being served.
2:58:51 PM
CHAIR DAVIS asked if Head Start is requesting funds in the
current year's budget.
MS. LYON said that the group would like to see a 10 percent
increase in funding.
CHAIR DAVIS said that the committee would not discuss funding at
that time but that she would like to see the proposal.
SENATOR DYSON asked if employees are being trained regarding
child abuse and neglect reporting.
MS. LYON said that they are.
SENATOR DYSON asked for the numbers of such reports across the
state.
MS. LYON said she did not have those numbers with her.
3:00:55 PM
TIFFANY RYAN, Executive Director for the Alaska Association for
the Education of Young Children (AAEYC), said that the
association's mission is to lead, facilitate, and support the
efforts of early childhood educators.
She referenced a document to explain that early educators need
professional development opportunities, and said that early
learners develop better with adequately prepared teachers. SEED
implemented a scholarship program to help early education
teachers have Associate degrees, and the percentage of thus
qualified teachers has doubled but the funding for the program
will be ending in autumn 2007. Additionally, a proposed federal
mandate will raise this standard to a Bachelor's degree.
She said that the AAEYC is proposing funding to continue the
professional scholarship system, which is crucial for teachers
who don't have the personal resources for continuing their
education. The current educator turnover rate in Alaska is 44
percent, which is an indicator of poor program quality in terms
of wages. SEED had a retainment system which has been de-funded
but stipend provision would help to reduce the turnover rate of
early educators.
CHAIR DAVIS thanked the presenters and, finding no further
business to come before the committee, adjourned the meeting at
3:08:09 PM.
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