Daudt Visits Preschool To Highlight GOP Education Plan
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- Minnesota House Speaker Kurt Daudt visited a private St. Paul learning center for preschoolers Thursday, highlighting the centerpiece of the GOP education plan: Early learning scholarships.
New Horizon Academy is settled in a working class St. Paul neighborhood where many families struggle. It's one of many successful Pre-k programs outside public schools.
But neighborhood parents can't afford the $12,000 fee without a scholarship Republicans are targeting at struggling families.
"I think we really owe it to those kids who are having the struggles and troubles to give them the head start and focus our attention there," Rep. Kurt Daudt, the GOP House Speaker. "That's what's going to close the achievement gap."
Gov. Mark Dayton says Pre-K programs should be available to all families, regardless of income, and only in public schools.
"To say that because you are over this income level you don't get that? And you do?" the Governor said. "I mean -- why not both?"
But one national early education expert says targeting lower income families with a mix of private and public facilities could be groundbreaking reform.
"You want to do something big?" Art Rolnick, senior fellow at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and former vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis, asked. "You want to make a statement to these families, how much we care about their kids? You want to make a statement to the business community that we're going to have one of the best workforces in the country? That's doing something big."