A St. Paul effort to boost the academic success of children through early childhood scholarships and rental assistance has won a key supporter: Gov. Mark Dayton.
Dayton has announced plans to include $2 million for the St. Paul Promise Neighborhood initiative in his budget for the 2016-17 biennium. The program works with hundreds of families in the Frogtown and Summit-University neighborhoods to provide preschool scholarships and housing assistance to help children find more success in school.
The idea is to help children better achieve academically by preparing them for school and stabilizing their home life, said Muneer Karcher-Ramos, Promise Neighborhood director.
"We're focused on changing the odds for families through opportunity," Karcher-Ramos said. "If this budget is approved by the Minnesota House and Senate, we'll be able to increase our efforts to close opportunity gaps in early childhood education."
The St. Paul Promise Neighborhood is a 250-square-block area in the center of St. Paul. Three schools are part of the initiative — Jackson Elementary, Maxfield Elementary and St. Paul City School. More than 100 families with children in those schools are homeless. Poverty in the area is high, with 90 percent of children qualifying for free and reduced-price lunch.
Through work with families, including providing housing assistance and scholarships for prekindergarten learning, the program seeks to prepare children for kindergarten and increase the number of children who are proficient in reading by the end of third grade.
Results from the last year are promising, Karcher-Ramos said.
St. Paul Promise Neighborhood third-graders made strong gains in state standardized reading assessments in 2014 — up 8 percent at Jackson, up 4 percent at Maxfield and up 3 percent at St. Paul City School. That compares with 1 percent gains across St. Paul public schools and the state.
