Senator Murray and Rep. Scott Urge Support for Pre-K Development Grants under ESSA
June 13, 2016
Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Representative Robert C. Scott (D-VA-3) sent a joint letter to Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. and Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell, urging them to support Pre-K Development Grants under ESSA, and provide strong oversight for state-driven early education plans. Under ESSA, $250 million of Pre-K Development grants are authorized to be jointly administered by the Departments of Education, and Health and Human Services. The lawmakers made several key recommendations to the administration, including:
- Encouraging them “to approve ambitious state plans to improve coordination, access, and quality in early childhood education.”
- Asking the two agencies to “work together on these preschool grants the same way they did to implement the administration’s Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge, and the way they work with states that already receive preschool development grants.”
- Urging them to make sure that “children currently in preschool development grants will have continuity and will be able to stay in their pre-ESSA, federally funded early learning programs.