Community effort drives the success of MELF program

The Minnesota Early Learning Foundation (MELF), backed by state businesses, has gained traction two years into its five-year quest to raise $30 million.

The money will fund early learning initiatives, pilot-program scholarships and the critical parent-involvement efforts that will lead to recommendations to the Legislature about the best ways to boost the number of kids ready for kindergarten. Today only half of kids are ready to learn when they start school.

The foundation turned down a $1 million state appropriation three years ago that had mandates and threatened to encumber the process. Instead, board members, supportive companies and individuals have contributed $18 million so far to fund several initiatives that are yielding clues to success and benefiting hundreds of preschoolers annually from core-city St. Paul to rural Nicollet County.

"The road gets a little steeper during the second half [of the foundation's existence]," said Rob Johnson, a board member and a retired Cargill executive.

"But we're optimistic and on course. It will be a great innovation if we accomplish nothing more than giving parents [and child-care] providers a common evaluation system that will drive more early learning and good outcomes. Low-income and immigrant families have oversubscribed on the pilot programs in the targeted areas. I believe we'll raise the rest of the money and deliver on our promises."

This is not a group of anti-government millionaires telling government -- which supplies a third of the $2 billion-plus spent on Minnesota day care -- that business knows better.

Rather it is an astute and pragmatic group of major employers -- confused by the Byzantine scheme of formulas, agencies and funding schemes -- who are trying to focus on best practices and incentives that will get more families engaged in quality early-age education from home to day care.

The initiative springs from Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank economists Art Rolnick and Rob Grunewald, who found in a 2003 study that early-age education for at-risk kids yields as much as a 16 percent annual return to taxpayers in terms of lower special-education costs, less criminality and social services, and more taxpayers.

Also driving the project is a looming shortage of skilled employees in Minnesota.

"In 1972, there were three times as many Minnesota kids in [kindergarten through 12th grade] as there were retirees," said Duane Benson, the farmer, former Republican legislator and business-association head who is the foundation's executive director.

"In 2014, there will be more retirees than students."

The 'Parent Aware' tool

The early learning foundation and other private, nonprofit and government partners this month launched "Parent Aware," a tool for parents that includes 200-plus providers in pilot neighborhoods of St. Paul, north Minneapolis and Wayzata, plus Blue Earth and Nicollet counties. The website is www.parentawareratings.org.

"We are betting the bank heavily on parental involvement," Benson said. "I hope this can be a model. We'll be able to tell the policymakers that we think 'these' are the ways to increase parent involvement and how to get more kids ready for school. We think that 80 to 90 percent of kids can be ready for kindergarten."

Warren Staley, the retired Cargill CEO; Brad Anderson, CEO of Best Buy Co. Inc.; and corporate and philanthropic executives from Blue Cross Blue Shield, the McKnight Foundation, Thrivent, United Way and law firm Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, among others, have invested time and energy discovering what works best to attract and engage unwitting or indifferent families, whether from Somalia or St. Paul, in preschool initiatives.

The single biggest chunk of foundation funds will go toward scholarships for 1,100-plus kids annually from two low-income St. Paul neighborhoods over a four-year period. Families get information and choose among early childhood education, parent mentoring and preschool programs from a menu of accredited participating providers.

"I'm pretty confident that MELF is going to contribute greatly," said Scott McConnell, a professor at the University of Minnesota and outreach director of the Center for Early Education and Development, which is evaluating the programs and results.

"And they lend a rational voice to the discussion. MELF brings together some agencies and groups that haven't worked together previously."

McConnell pointed to Parent Aware, which was "just idling at the curb. People talked, and there were work groups. But it needed some capitalization and [to be] positioned as an information source for consumers. It has a different tweak under MELF tutelage."

My take on this: The Early Learning Foundation and its partners are on the cusp of a simpler, consumer-engaging system that will get more bang for the public buck and get more kids off on the right foot. That will benefit us all.

For more information, go to www.melf.us.

Neal St. Anthony • 612-673-7144 • nstanthony@startribune.com