MELF Leader Offers Parting Advice on Early Learning

The Caring for Kids Initiative is a shining example of what it takes to ensure our youngest children are prepared for kindergarten and are poised for success in school and life.

CfKI began as a pilot program of the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation. Minnesota business and nonprofit leaders formed MELF in 2005 to research early education and kindergarten preparedness. MELF raised $20 million in private funding to learn more about how to improve early education quality. MELF’s leaders included businessmen from Minnesota’s leading companies, including Best Buy, Cargill, General Mills, and Target.

Art Rolnick, former economist for the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank and current Humphrey Institute Fellow, helped to lead MELF’s efforts to determine effective and affordable ways to improve early education quality, so more kids would be ready for kindergarten.

MELF piloted several approaches for improving early education quality in a number of Minnesota communities—Saint Paul, Minneapolis, Wayzata, and Nicollet and Blue Earth counties. MELF provided funding to CfKI for 1- ½ years, and CfKI has continued to raise funds to grow the number of scholarships.

CfKI currently provides early learning scholarships for 106 children in the Wayzata School District. Evaluations by MELF and Wayzata Schools show children from low-income families who receive scholarships to quality programming are better prepared to succeed in kindergarten than their counterparts who do not have access to quality early childhood programming.

MELF is sunsetting in December, and its executive director, Duane Benson, offers lessons learned while pushing for pre-school in a StarTribune editorial.

Further recommendations are included in the following article.
Blueprint for Early Education Reform