The Senate Education Committee on Wednesday heard the latest in a series of presentations aimed at curbing Minnesota’s longstanding and pervasive achievement gap. Senator Carla Nelson (R-Rochester), the committee’s chairwoman, presented a bill that would provide additional funding for Minnesota’s targeted early learning scholarship program. This program, known as the “Minnesota Model,” provides low-income families with scholarships to help students have access to the same early learning opportunities as other children.

“We know two absolute facts that are critical to closing Minnesota’s achievement gap,” said Sen. Nelson. “First, that students who are proficient at reading by third grade are statistically more likely to perform well throughout their school career; and second, that there are still 35,000 low-income children under the age of 5 who are unable to afford early education programs. This bill addresses that second fact, so that more students are able to achieve the first.”

Continued Sen. Nelson, “These scholarships are flexible. They are targeted to those who need help the most. They empower parents. They can be used in any setting – public school, private school, center-based care, or family-based care. Whatever a parent’s preferences are, we want to make sure their child is ready for kindergarten and elementary school”

The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in a supplemental budget bill.

Earlier in the day, a group of early childhood experts joined Sen. Nelson for a press conference discussing the bill, including Art Rolnick, an economist and former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis; Sondra Samuels, President and CEO of the nonprofit Northside Achievement Zone; Sara Stebbins, Director of Early Learning Scholarships for the Rochester-based nonprofit Families First; and Deirdre Otis, Saleemah Shabazz Salahud-Din and Karla Smith, three parents who benefited from early learning scholarships.