02/29/2012 08:00 AM Senate EDUCATION

          SB   6-PREKINDERGARTEN SCHOOL PROGRAMS/PLANS                                                                      
                                                                                                                              
8:04:08 AM                                                                                                                    
CO-CHAIR THOMAS  announced the  consideration of  SB 6  and noted                                                               
that  CSSB  6( ),  version  I,  was  introduced in  the  previous                                                               
meeting.  He  had  objected  for the  purpose  of  discussing  an                                                               
updated fiscal  note and now they  must adopt the CS  in order to                                                               
get the  updated fiscal note.  He then removed his  objection and                                                               
finding no further objections announced  that CSSB 6 ( ), labeled                                                               
27-LS0058\I was adopted.                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                
8:05:21 AM                                                                                                                    
CO-CHAIR MEYER moved to adopt Amendment 1.                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                
                                              27-LS0058\I.1                                                                     
                                             Kirsch/Mischel                                                                     
                          AMENDMENT 1                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                
     OFFERED IN THE SENATE            BY SENATOR THOMAS                                                                         
     TO:  CSSB 6(   ), Draft Version "I"                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                
     Page 6, line 9, following "receives":                                                                                      
          Insert "state"                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                
8:05:35 AM                                                                                                                    
CO-CHAIR THOMAS objected for the purpose of discussion.                                                                         
                                                                                                                                
8:05:46 AM                                                                                                                    
LES  MORSE,  Deputy  Commissioner, Department  of  Education  and                                                               
Early  Development,  Juneau,  said Cynthia  Curran  would  answer                                                               
questions regarding Amendment 1.                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                
8:05:57 AM                                                                                                                    
CYNTHIA   CURRAN,  Director,   Teaching  and   Learning  Support,                                                               
Department  of Education  and Early  Development (DEED),  Juneau,                                                               
explained that language in section  9 says a school district "may                                                               
not  include  in  the  average daily  membership  of  the  school                                                               
students who are  four years of age if the  students are enrolled                                                               
in  a program  that  receives state  funding  other than  funding                                                               
under this  chapter." They believe that  inserting "state" allows                                                               
the programs to seek other  grant funding: federal or private. If                                                               
that word is not there, they  may be precluded from being able to                                                               
do that.                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                
8:06:51 AM                                                                                                                    
CO-CHAIR  THOMAS  removed  his   objection.  Finding  no  further                                                               
objection, he stated that Amendment 1 was adopted.                                                                              
                                                                                                                                
CO-CHAIR  THOMAS   asked  how  SB   6  might  affect   the  Moore                                                               
settlement.                                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                                
8:08:21 AM                                                                                                                    
MS.  CURRAN   answered  that   the  assistant   attorney  general                                                               
determined that they  would be able to work  through any concerns                                                               
that might come up with the Moore settlement.                                                                                   
                                                                                                                                
CO-CHAIR  THOMAS asked  Senator  French if  he  could review  the                                                               
Crime Summit information and share  it with Senator Stevens after                                                               
the meeting.                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
8:09:51 AM                                                                                                                    
SENATOR FRENCH  said that Senator  Stevens was interested  in the                                                               
dollar  savings  that  can  be  generated  from  pre-kindergarten                                                               
programs  in areas  outside of  education.  In Monday's  meeting,                                                               
Senator  French   said  he  had   talked  about   the  beneficial                                                               
educational effects in  the PPVT study, the Dial-3  curves and so                                                               
forth, and he wanted to note  two pieces of information. One, the                                                               
first Crime Summit, was conducted in  Alaska and led to a Cost of                                                               
Crime  Study  done  by  the  Institute  of  Social  and  Economic                                                               
Research  (ISER).  It  looked  at   a  series  of  rehabilitation                                                               
programs that could  lower the crime rate and reduce  the rate of                                                               
recidivism. Surprisingly, the best  program they found state-wide                                                               
was  Head Start.  The study  revealed that  Head Start  for young                                                               
children  saves six  times more  than  it costs  and reduces  the                                                               
future  crime rate  among participants  by about  16 percent.  He                                                               
noted  that it  could take  a while  to pay  off, but  the dollar                                                               
savings were pretty well established.                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                
8:12:04 AM                                                                                                                    
SENATOR FRENCH  stated that  a much more  in-depth report  on the                                                               
same subject came  from Annie Pennucci with  the Washington State                                                               
Institute of  Public Policy.  She analyzed  the findings  from 11                                                               
individual  studies that  directly  measured  crime outcomes  and                                                               
plotted the effect  sizes to summarize whether there  was more or                                                               
less crime  for pre-school students vs.  non-pre-school kids, and                                                               
how much  less crime. The  students were sometimes  followed into                                                               
adulthood  to see  if they  had committed  crimes. Findings  from                                                               
individual  studies  indicated  a  range of  how  much  crime  is                                                               
avoided from  preschool; one study  found a very  small increase,                                                               
but on average, crime went  down for preschool students about .23                                                               
standard deviations,  a 20 percent  reduction in the  crime rate,                                                               
which is similar to what the ISER study revealed.                                                                               
                                                                                                                                
He said  that her study  qualified the costs in  Washington where                                                               
you can get a year and a  half of preschool for about $7,295. The                                                               
three most significant areas of savings are:                                                                                    
1) The  reduced crime  stemming from  lower criminal  justice and                                                               
victims costs were worth about $6,066.                                                                                          
2) The educational gains stemmed  from increased earnings for the                                                               
individual were worth about $9,800.                                                                                             
3) The reductions in special  education spending that you have to                                                               
do for  kids who go  to pre-kindergarten was worth  about $1,000.                                                               
If  you  add  all  that  up, for  a  $7,295  investment  in  pre-                                                               
kindergarten you get about $21,000  back in savings, a 3:1 ratio.                                                               
Those numbers jibe with State of  Alaska numbers and it's good to                                                               
keep  in mind  that  pre-kindergarten pays  benefits outside  the                                                               
typical areas people think of in the area of education.                                                                         
                                                                                                                                
8:13:17 AM                                                                                                                    
CO-CHAIR  THOMAS  commented  that through  discussions  with  the                                                               
Department of  Corrections commissioner  he found this  issue was                                                               
pervasive  throughout  the system  and  that  the department  was                                                               
definitely starting to keep statistics on it.                                                                                   
                                                                                                                                
CO-CHAIR MEYER said those were  interesting numbers and that even                                                               
the governor's own council had  indicated a definite cost savings                                                               
in having a  pre-K program of some sort. He  asked Senator French                                                               
if the  Head Start  Program was  the best  nationwide or  just in                                                               
Alaska and how long that had been the case.                                                                                     
                                                                                                                                
8:14:41 AM                                                                                                                    
SENATOR FRENCH  answered that this  was ISER looking  at programs                                                               
currently operating in the State of  Alaska and Head Start is the                                                               
number one provider here of pre-K  at the time. The fact that the                                                               
Washington State Institute for Public  Policy sort of pulled back                                                               
and  looked at  a series  of studies  across the  nation combined                                                               
with  the local  result from  Alaska was  just good  confirmation                                                               
that it's a phenomenon that is repeatable.                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                
CO-CHAIR  MEYER commented  that pre-K  was not  initiated in  the                                                               
past due  to the lack of  data tracking children from  4 years of                                                               
age to age  18 to see what  happened to them. But  Head Start has                                                               
been around long enough to have that data now.                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                
8:16:30 AM                                                                                                                    
SENATOR FRENCH  said the administration deserved  some credit for                                                               
generating  so much  information  during the  pilot program.  The                                                               
data  shows that  pre-K  education  pays off  in  later gains  in                                                               
education and in other areas like reducing crime.                                                                               
                                                                                                                                
8:16:38 AM                                                                                                                    
SENATOR STEVENS joined the meeting.                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                
CO-CHAIR  MEYER commented  that the  administration's task  force                                                               
recommendations would  not be ready until  the June 1 and  he was                                                               
hoping that  they would say  that Head Start  was the way  to go.                                                               
Since they  don't have that  information, he thought  they should                                                               
go forward with SB 6.                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                
SENATOR  STEVENS stated  that he  was comfortable  with what  the                                                               
committee had done so far and that they could move forward.                                                                     
                                                                                                                                
8:18:57 AM                                                                                                                    
CO-CHAIR MEYER moved  to report CSSB 6 (  ), version 27-LS0058\I,                                                               
as amended,  from committee  with individual  recommendations and                                                               
forthcoming  fiscal note(s).  There  was no  objection, and  CSSB
(EDC) moved from the Senate Education Standing Committee.