Emails directed to the House Education Innovation Committee
Dear Madam Chair and Members of the Education and Innovation Policy Committee:
My name is Michele Haas and I live in Rosemount, Minnesota and I am a Daycare provider. I am opposed to Universal Preschool as child care is how I make a living and would greatly impact the state of home childcare. I believe it would impact families that need care for children birth to three as it would require me and most other providers to raise rates to earn a sustainable operating income. Therefore, I desire for them to oppose/kill the bill in committee and not include it in the Omnibus bill
Thank You,
Michele Haas
Dear Madam Chair and Members of the Education and Innovation Policy Committee:
My name is Loretta Eggert and I operate a high quality Licensed Family Child Care AND Preschool in Elk River, MN. I am highly opposed to HF46 and request that you oppose the bill in committee and please do not include it in the Omnibus bill.
My job is my passion & I love the families in my care and they love me! Passing this bill would remove preschoolers from my care and that would have a devastating impact on my business, my family and my well being.
PLEASE oppose HF46!!
Sincerely,
Loretta Eggert
Dear Madam Chair and Members of the Education and Innovation Policy Committee:
My name is Anita Juntilla of Brooklyn Center. I am a licensed home daycare provider. I oppose HF46 and desire for you to oppose/kill the bill in committee and not include it in the Omnibus bill. This bill would force daycares like mine out of business and/or force us to raise rates to make ends meet. Furthermore, it is not supported by research. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Anita Juntilla
Dear Madam Chair and Members of the Education and Innovation Policy Committee:
My name is Mary Frances Halseth, Blaine, Minnesota and I am a licensed Child Care Provider for the last 11 years. I oppose HF46 and desire for them to oppose/kill the bill in committee and not include it in the Omnibus bill.
I believe that family child care supports children’s interests and natural curiosities with time to explore and experience learning at their individual pace and level of development. I teach a preschool curriculum for my children who are of age 2 1/2 to age 5. I am completely satisfied with my teaching and am happy to report many school agers who have been at the top of their Kindergarten class and are reading before entering Kindergarten. I strongly believe a family childcare setting is the best for children, they get a better experience with the Provider/Teacher and get one on one when it comes to learning. They also need to be kids and not robots that are put in a classroom and forced to learn. Isn't 5 years old scary enough to be in all day everyday Kindergarten? Which is another issue I disagree with too.
Based on the current adult-to-child ratio, Universal Preschool will significantly impact the sustainability of the licensed family child care profession.
Universal Preschool will force a market change that will negatively impact and create a financial burden for families seeking care for children birth to three as family child care programs will be forced to raise rates to earn a sustainable operating income.
I feel this is an important issue that can't be ignored. Please Oppose this bill, and let the Licensed Child Care Providers Of Minnesota help prepare these Preschoolers for Kindergarten in a loving home setting.
Thank you for your time, let's see a good change for a better future for us Childcare providers who put love and time teaching our young children.
Sincerely,
Mary Frances Halseth
Dear Madam Chair and Members of the Education and Innovation Policy Committee:
I am a licensed family child care provider and licensed elementary teacher living in Hastings, MN. I have been in the profession of educating children for over 20 years, and I strongly encourage you to oppose HF46!
This bill poses a huge threat to the livelihood and cost of the 9,000 plus family child care providers in our state and the children/families they serve. Children do not need more structured, push down to learn more at an earlier age, what they need is a caring environment where they can be curious, lifelong learners and play, socialize and explore their world without pressure or state mandates.
If the state offers free 4 year old preschool, providers will be forced to raise their rates significantly for birth-age 3 children to make up for the lost income and children. The cost of child care is already straining on parents of little ones, and this would cause an unnecessary strain on Minnesota’s families.
Sincerely,
Lori LaLonde
Dear Madam Chair and Members of the Education and Innovation Policy Committee:
My name is Shirley Eide, and I have been providing licensed childcare in my home in Shakopee since 1978. I have recently received my Parent Aware Two Star Rating.
I want you to know that I strongly oppose HF 46/SF6 and urge you to oppose/kill this bill and not include it in the Omnibus bill.
If this would go through it would force me to either go out of business and try to find other employment, or raise rates significantly for infants, toddlers, two and three year-old children. I know that other providers who have dedicated their entire careers to providing in-home childcare would be in the same position. Over half the children I have right now would be gone. How will this impact the parents of younger children? Will they beable to afford quality childcare for them or even find such care?
I also strongly believe that this would not be in the best interest of most children in this age group. What next, universal school for three year-olds, then two year-olds? Where will it end. Let kids be kids please, they need to learn in differents ways than older children and we in the childcare profession can provide what they need.
Sincerely,
Shirley Eide
To whom it may concern,
I am writing in regards to bill HF46.
I am a daycare provider in greater Minnesota. I have a degree in Elementary Education as well as a Masters in Elementary Classroom. I have been a daycare provider for over 10 years and would like to continue for many years but I am concerned that if this bill passes it would cause my business as well as many others to close. Daycare providers need four year olds to fill in their numbers to make a living. If we can't make a living we either raise our rates for the other ages or we close. Either way it may be detrimental to the work force as a whole. As you know there are many people who rely on daycare providers to care for their children in order for them to be able to work. If workers can't afford care or care isn't available because daycares are closing it affects everyone. Please don't let this bill slip through unnoticed, stop it before it affects Minnesota's workforce.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Natalie Braegelmann
Morris, MN
Hello Carmen Mayo,
and to whom it may also concern,
I have been a MN. Licensed Family Childcare Provider for over 30 years.
All day free Kindergarten has greatly affected my business.
With the new changes my income has suffered, the States Provider to child ratioshave not changed due to this I will never have full enrollment.If preschool for 4 year old children passed I would only have two choices.The first would be to close, which is something I have been diligently trying to avoidSecond would be the need to greatly increase the weekly fees to cover my income loss.This is what ALL Licensed Family Childcare Providers in our state will face.
We are already up against unlicensed SAHM's (stay at home mom's) that supply daycare/evening/night care.This cheap non-regulated care is unsafe for our little ones with little action being taken to control their enrollment.Then parents would have Center care,
which is on average $100 to $150 dollars more per week then Licensed based home care.
Nothing is free.Taxes would have to increase to pay for this new program.Quality care will suffer, parents choices will be limited.So I am asking for you and others that are looking to make a wise decision to Please work with License Family Childcare Providers that make every effort to follow requirements and DO the job.Most of us help parents get their child ready for kindergarten.We teach and supervise play in a loving home environment that limits stress to child including helping parents parent. Long exposure to Institutional care for small children is not and never has been a good environment.
Please look into the back lash of what will change, and Who will pay in the long run... our Children.
Sincerely
Desiree' Rotter
Hugo Mn.
Washington County MN.
Hi, I am Chris Carrigan a family Child Care provider. I am opposed to the mandatory Preschool for 4 years olds. I work very hard and take many classes that the state already requires me to do. The state is requiring us to do a lot with the kids to get them ready for kindergarten. Some 4 year olds are just not ready for Preschool and get plenty of kindergarten readiness at their daycares. When do we allow kids to be kids?We are pushing them way to hard and at too early of an age. Some are ready but some are not. I believe this will have an adverse effect on some children. Also many Daycare providers have quit in the last year due to all of the rule changes and extra paperwork, this will also affect our business. When they started all day/everyday kindergarten that took a lot of kids out of daycares. If Daycare providers don't have the preschoolers what do we have? More will quit and there is already a shortage in our area. You are pushing for us to get 4 star ratings and everything else! For what to get infants ready for kindergarten because that's all we have left. Think about the kids, lets not push them any more than we already do. Let kids be kids, let the parents decide if it is right for their child!!!
Thank You,
Chris Carrigan
Family Child Care Provider
Dear Madam Chair and Members of the Education and Innovation Policy Committee:
My name is Karen Anderson, I live in Fergus Falls Minnesota and I have been doing daycare in my home for over 35 years. I am writing you today to express my opposition to the HF46 Bill and my desire that you either oppose or kill the bill in committee and not include it in the omnibus bill. I have several reasons for making such a request:
First of all, Universal Preschool does not address the need to fund research that specifically shows in what type of care setting the children who are not prepared for kindergarten have been in in order to appropriately target funding. In my daycare as well as those of my colleagues we are well aware of what skills a child needs to be able to have a successful start when they enter kindergarten and work with each child to help insure that those skills are met. Because of our small child to adult ratio and the close relationships we have with the children we care for, we are able to work with each child to assess their abilities and work with them on an individual basis. For these reasons I do not believe that the children that have been identified in Universal Preschool research have come from home based licensed day care settings.
Secondly, because of the low Adult to Child ratio that daycare homes have Universal Preschool will significantly impact the sustainability of the license family childcare profession. We already took a big hit when all day kindergarten started, losing the ability to fill two of our “spots”. Losing all of our 4 year old children to Universal Preschool will inevitably make a dent in the number of children we will be caring for. If the losses get too plentiful there are many people that will not be able to continue offering daycare.
And finally, you may be thinking that I do not want the HF46 to pass because I will be adversely affected and my income will be reduced substantially which is a selfish reason. There is some truth to that but what I worry about more is how this bill will force a market change that will negatively impact and create a financial burden for families seeking daycare for children from birth to three years of age as family daycares will be forced to raise rates to earn a sustainable operating income. For example: I currently charge $24 a day for daycare with 7 children enrolled. If I were to lose the two 4 year olds I have, I would lose $48 a day. I can’t make enough money to run my business with just 5 children in care so I would either have to find another job, cross my fingers and pray really hard that two families with 3 year olds call me (because under licensing guidelines I already have my limit of children under 2) or I would raise my rates to $34 a day ( a 42% increase) just to continue to make the same amount of money I am currently making. I don’t want to quit my job and I’m sure my families don’t want me to quit, it is very unlikely that I will find the 3 year olds, so my rates would have to increase and the families would struggle to pay those rates.
In summary: It has been determined that children aren’t prepared for kindergarten. It has not been determined if these children are coming from licensed daycare homes, daycare centers, existing preschools, or if they are children that are cared for by family members, unlicensed daycares or by their parents. If they are from the later group of unlicensed care or parental/family care then money should be used to insure that those children are able to attend a preschool or headstart programs if they chose to. And then again, maybe we should respect the rights of parents who choose NOT to have their child attend a structured preschool because they believe that a child learns through play or that a child needs to have the chance to be a child. Maybe those parents are right, maybe it doesn’t really matter that their children aren’t prepared for kindergarten, because they don’t know how to do basic addition and can’t read when they enter kindergarten. Maybe it’s more important to them that their child to be a child or perhaps they think that greater life long lessons will be learned if they allow their children to be able to spend the first four years of their life just being a kid!
Sincerely,
Karen Anderson
Karen’s Kids Licensed Daycare
Dear Madam Chair and Members of the Education and Innovation Policy Committee:
My is Tabitha Zimmer from Sturgeon Lake and I’m a Head Start teacher in a home based center. I say no to HF46 and desire for them to oppose/kill the bill in committee and not include it in the Omnibus bill. Little ones at this stage in life are not ready to leave the nest to be pulled into classroom settings.
Sincerely,
Tabitha Zimmer
Madam chair person
I am a Provider of 25 plus years from St Cloud MN. I have seen the government take over the parents rights to their children's In-Home-Care for years from what to eat-how to sleep, now how to take away their play and not to mention their surroundings of love and nurture. I have taken in many children who came from centers and who were over whelmed by centers. Big buildings -t oo loud - ratios and the turn over of very young staff who can't figure out themselves let alone a child and get to know them personally which is key and to know them on a day to day basis. I have had parents STOP their current 3-4 year old pre-school and bring them to my home because the kids were doing more in an IN-HOME- DAYCARE, than in a Pre-school.
Thank you Kristine
Dear madam,
I am writing in response to the proposal of 4 years olds going to school? The impact of this decision will ripple for generations. Most 4 year olds are not ready for such rigors or structure. These young children's will be intermingled with much older children and exposing them to ideas, behaviors and modeling that may not be in their best interests. Parents have a responsibility of raising children, which can be shared with a " daycare mom". Our teachers have enough to deal with in the classrooms. Then let us introduce the transportation issue of getting these 4 years olds to and from school. Would you want your 4 year old riding the bus with a 6 th grader? I, as a child care provider have first hand experience with special needs children and or children somewhere on the spectrum. The 7 year old in my care is a hazard for the bus driver, as this bus driver not only has to manage the roads and their various conditions, but also the emotional and often times anti social behaviors of the children he is merely driving to school.
Please, please, think about your options wisely, this is not the best for our future leaders, not the best for our currently overburdened teachers, and certainly is not in the best interest of those of us trying to make a difference in the lives of young children.