Title
Ordering a special election to be held on November 5, 2024 to add a ballot question on whether the City should create a dedicated fund for subsidies for children's early care and education through a property tax levy. (This item was vetoed by the Mayor on July 27, 2023 and over-ridden on August 16, 2023.)
Body
WHEREAS 90% of brain development occurs in the first five years of life, when children acquire language, motor skills, emotional capacities, problem-solving abilities, and pre-literacy skills; and
WHEREAS early intervention in these critical years has been proven to have significant impacts on children’s future success in school, including reductions in special education placement and higher rates of high school graduation; and
WHEREAS over 16 years ago, economists Art Rolnick and Rob Grunewald at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis researched the potential benefits of providing the most at-risk children with high-quality early childhood programs by looking at longitudinal studies and research on brain development and found a rate of return on investment as high as 16%; and
WHEREAS twenty-seven percent of Saint Paul children live under the federal poverty level and over half live under 185% of the Federal Poverty Level, a threshold used by the State of Minnesota to indicate need for means-tested Early Learning Scholarships; and
WHEREAS current programs and funding available to families, such as the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), Early Learning Scholarships, Head Start/Early Head Start and Saint Paul Public Schools Pre-K, do not meet the extraordinary need and have significant wait lists; and
WHEREAS in 2023, the Minnesota Legislature approved significant increases to programs serving children 0-5 years old and an independent analysis by Rob Grunewald estimates that from $22 million to $78 million additional dollars could flow to Saint Paul in 2024; however, those estimates also show that Saint Paul would still need an additional $39 m...
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