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124D.175 Minnesota early learning foundation proposal.

(a) The commissioner must implement an early childhood development grant program for low-income and other challenged families that increases the effectiveness and expands the capacity of public and nonpublic early childhood development programs, which may include child care programs, and leads to improved early childhood parent education and children's kindergarten readiness. The program must include:

(1) grant awards to existing early childhood development program providers that also provide parent education programs and to qualified providers proposing to implement pilot programs for this same purpose;

(2) grant awards to enable low-income families to participate in these programs;

(3) grant awards to improve overall programmatic quality; and

(4) an evaluation of the programmatic and financial efficacy of all these programs, which may be performed using measures of services, staffing, and management systems that provide consistent information about system performance, show trends, confirm successes, and identify potential problems in early childhood development programs.

This grant program must not supplant existing early childhood development programs or child care funds.

(b) The commissioner must contract with a private nonprofit, section 501(c)(3) organization to implement the requirements of paragraph (a). The private nonprofit organization must be governed by a board of directors composed of members from the public and nonpublic sectors, where the nonpublic sector members compose a simple majority of board members and where the public sector members are state and local government officials, kindergarten through grade 12 or postsecondary educators, and early childhood providers appointed by the governor. Membership on the board of directors by a state agency official are work duties for the official and are not a conflict of interest under section 43A.38. The board of directors must appoint an executive director and must seek advice from geographically and ethnically diverse parents of young children and representatives of early childhood development providers, kindergarten through grade 12 and postsecondary educators, public libraries, and the business sector. The board of directors is subject to the open meeting law under chapter 13D. All other terms and conditions under which board members serve and operate must be described in the articles and bylaws of the organization. The private nonprofit organization is not a state agency and is not subject to laws governing public agencies except the provisions of chapter 13, salary limits under section 15A.0815, subdivision 2, and audits by the legislative auditor under chapter 3 apply.

(c) This section expires June 30, 2011. If no state appropriation is made for purposes of this section, the commissioner must not implement paragraphs (a) and (b).

HIST: 1Sp2005 c 5 art 7 s 15

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Revisor of Statutes