Facts In Action

On February 26, Governor Mitt Romney presented his version of the state budget. In respect to early care and education, one of the most prominent aspects of his proposal was a transfer of $74 million in funds from the Department of Education (DOE) Community Partnerships program to the Office of Child Care Services (OCCS).

The Community Partnership program, originally funded in the late 1980s and then further grown during the mid- and late-1990s, provides the Commonwealth with both direct services slots for preschool children and programming to enhance those services. The program is administered through the public schools and then further administered through the local Lead Agencies.

The rationale for transferring the funds from the DOE to OCCS was the cost benefit of consolidating all early childhood education funds into one agency. It would be more cost-efficient to let OCCS handle administrative tasks, instead of using additional money to staff the local Community Partnership offices across the state. Reducing the expense of administration would free up more funds for direct services for children. However, supporters of Community Partnerships feel that if the money is transferred, communities will lose the local control and community input the program offers.

In April, the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee drafted a budget that reduced the funds for the Community Partnerships program by $10 million, but kept the funds at the DOE. In mid-May, the Senate Ways and Means Committee drafted their budget which also kept the funds at DOE, but included a provision about the way that these funds would be managed. The Senate created a three-member Early Care and Education council comprised of the Commissioner of the DOE, Commissioner of OCCS and the Commissioner of the Department of Public Health. This council would be responsible for reviewing proposals from the Community Partnerships programs.

The next step in the process is for the Senate and House Conference Committee to meet and reach a compromise between the two legislative budgets. Since neither the House nor the Senate budget included a transfer of Community Partnerships funds from DOE to OCCS, the funds will remain at DOE in the Conference Committee budget as well.

The budget developed by the Conference Committee will eventually be voted on by the House and Senate. If the budget is approved by both branches of the legislature, it will be passed on to Romney for his review and approval.

Facts in Action, May/June 2003