February 11, 2010
Community Empowerment - Do or Die?
The 2009-2010 school year finds the first kids involved with the Community Empowerment initiative approaching high school graduation. This innovative approach has been very successful in helping families prepare their children to begin their education, but the other goal - reducing duplication in programs and governance of early childhood programs - has yet to be achieved.
In 1997, the Iowa Legislature created an interim committee to examine options for reorganizing the Department of Human Services. At the time, there was bipartisan concern over the size of the Department and its ability to provide necessary services to Iowans. Rather than allow the Department or the executive branch to develop ideas for changes, legislators took it upon themselves to be agents of change.
What emerged from their efforts was an idea that local people were better equipped to make decisions about programs for children and families. From this, the legislators and citizens involved with the 1997 interim study came up with the idea of Community Empowerment. Bringing all the players in a community together, local citizens could help direct efforts to help get children ready to learn when they entered kindergarten.
Since 1998, state-level efforts on Empowerment have focused almost exclusively on addressing the 0-5 services. What has been forgotten is the other priority of the 1997 interim – ending duplication of early childhood services. As part of its duties, the Iowa Empowerment Board is charged with “developing and annually update a five-year plan for consolidating, blending, and redistributing state-administered funding streams for children from birth through age five made available to community empowerment area boards”. Iowa Code section 28.4 (11) (a) [2009] Unfortunately, very little has been done to perform this duty.
Twelve years after the Legislature started the Empowerment process, it is hard to identify any program that has been eliminated or combined. This summer, the House Republican Research Staff went back to the original intent of Community Empowerment to see if the original goals had been met.
In a report entitled “Eliminating Program and Oversight Duplication in Community Empowerment: The Unachieved Goal,” staff found that overlapping programs and boards is an even bigger problem than in 1997.
For early childhood programs, staff identified 35 programs in four state agencies that provide significant services to children from age 0-5. That number is a significant increase over the 27 early childhood programs that were identified in 2005, when the Legislature last examined this issue. The chart at the end of the newsletter shows just the extent of the problem.
One area where the state has numerous programs addressing the same issue is in the area of parental education and the prevention of child abuse. There are at least nine different programs in the Departments of Education, Human Rights, Human Services, and Public Health that are involved in working with families to reduce the risk of child abuse.
The appearance of overlapping programs is even more pronounced when looking at Iowa’s child care and child development programs. Staff identified eleven programs within DE, DHS, and DPH that provide either child care or pre-school services to children under the age of 5 or support those programs.
It is important to note that these programs do not provide the exact same services or serve the same families. At a time when state budgets are tight, it would seem logical for policymakers to focus on eliminating duplication as a way to preserve as much funding as possible for direct services to Iowa children and their families.
For oversight, the creation of Empowerment has not meant a reduction in boards and commissions. In fact, when Empowerment was passed in 1998 there were two committees. Today, there are four – the Iowa Empowerment Board (DOM), the Child Development Coordinating Council (DE), the Child Care Advisory Council (DHS), and the Early Childhood Iowa Council (DPH). Do these groups work together? Not often.
As with the growing duplication of early childhood programs, the legislative intent to reduce the overlap and duplication of state boards and commissions has not happened. Instead, the Legislature has gone along with the adoption of new state boards that will perform the exact same function of the Iowa Empowerment Board.
With the Legislature focusing on the future of Community Empowerment during the debate over the state government reorganization bill, maybe it is time to focus on the one facet of Empowerment that has largely been forgotten – reducing duplication. Such an effort could have two positive effects for Iowans. Early childhood programs could be more focused at meeting the needs of the children and families they are to serve while also reducing the bureaucratic overlap and duplication that has grown over the past 12 years. One thing that should be saved is local control.
Re-Org Bill Dissolves Empowerment
SF 2088 is a massive government reorganization bill designed to reduce the size of government and save the state money. Governor Culver hired a consultant-Public Services LLC to give recommendations of ways to reduce government size and expenditures. There was also a House/Senate joint task force that met during the interim with the same basic goals.
One of the more controversial elements of this bill is the section that dissolves Community Empowerment as we have known it, and places it under the Dept of Education (DE). This creates a HUGE problem for my local Community Empowerment boards. My Empowerment boards know that children age 0-5 do NOT belong under the jurisdiction of the Iowa DE. This is a top-down approach that does away with local decision making and collaboration. I believe it is an attempt to close all faith-based preschool programs, and give control to the teachers union.
This week began at 10:00 AM Monday in the Old Supreme Court Chambers. The room was full, standing room only, as 60 registered speakers gave their support to reject the closure of any state MHI and retain the current governance of Empowerment. Tama County director Lori Johnson gave superb testimony. Iowa County director Tammy Wetjen-Kesterson was planning to testify but was unable to attend because of inclement weather. Her statement was submitted electronically.
We know there are House Democrats opposed to this bad idea. Rep. Tyler Olsen is offering an amendment that puts Empowerment back under the Dept. of Management (DOM). Several Republican Legislators also have offered amendments and the rumor here is the House Democrats are “on the fence” about what to do with it. Yesterday Governor Culver’s office sent out a message that all paid personnel of Community Empowerment needed to report to his office all salary information. This seems like an intimidation tactic. This information should all be available from the Legislative Fiscal Agency (LSA).
When this bill was up for debate in the Senate, the amendment restoring the Community Empowerment succeeded 30 -20. At that point Leader Mike Gronstal put on a “motion to reconsider”. After going to caucus they came back and defeated it 27-23. Rumor is that this is a “must do” on the Governor’s list. Community Empowerment has served our rural communities very well and I hope we can be successful in derailing this takeover by the Governor and the DE.
Visitors to the Capitol…….Pastor of the Day Richard Larson and his wife Jane of What Cheer. Greer, Natalie, and Allison Steinke of Gibson, and Rhonda Herr of Sigourney were visiting House Page Emily Steinke.
Question of the week: What do you think should be done to down-size the state government.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me during the interim. I can be reached at 641-634-2227, or hgdb@iowatelecom.net.