History on the Early Education Development (Educare)

By Amanda Teegarden Co-Founder, Oklahomas for School Accountibility
December 15, 2005

A little history on the Early Education Development (Educare) scheme:

1) The (UN) Commission for Social Development 36th session took place 10-20 February, 1998. The following report was adopted by the Economic and Social Council.:


"57. Early childhood education, both formal and informal, is a tool for reducing vulnerability and promoting social integration by providing all children with the basic skills that will give them a firm foundation for further learning. Provision of nutritional supplements, immunization and primary health care to all children, at both pre-school and primary school levels, is necessary for giving them a better start in life."

Source: UN Commission for Social Development Report

2) "Educare comes from the Chicago-based Ounce of Prevention Fund and promotes the best practices in early childhood learning." Ounce of Prevention is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Fund. Note:


"In the American Spectator online, Capital Research Center Senior Research Associate David Hogberg examined the agenda of those groups involved in the recent Cover The Uninsured Week (CTUW). The prime mover behind CTUW is the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, whose agenda could not be clearer: “[I]nsofar as achieving universal coverage,” wrote former Robert Wood Johnson Foundation president Steven Schroeder, “government functions as a legitimate public servant.”



The (UN) Commission for Social Development 36th session took place 10-20 February, 1998.

Since 1999, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation also funds many groups involved in CTUW that have government-run health care agenda, including the AARP ($4.8 million), the Service Employees International Union ($350,000), Healthcare Leadership Council ($397,000) and Families USA ($7.3 million)."

Source: Philanthropy Notes: June 2005

3) Remember Hillary's 'socialized medicine'? These early childhood centers, school based clinics, are the backdoor implementation of that goal, along with family interference, mental health screening (for all), re-education of parents, home visitation by a state agency.

All to make sure children are being raised properly, so that all are thinking along the same lines, like good little citizens. (Sarcasm intentional).

4) It (early childhood development) was promoted to the states at the National Governor's Association 2002-2003 "gubernatorial Task Force on School Readiness to identify actions that governor's and states can take to support families, schools, and communities in their effort to ensure all children are ready for school."

Source: NGA Task Force on School Readiness

5) Tulsa Community Action Project received a $512,124 grant in 2003 from HHS for Early Head Start. (I think this went toward the Reed project).

Source: HHS Awards $72 Million in Early Head Start

6) 2003 QUOTE: "The clearly stated goals of (Marc) Tucker and Hillary in her "It Takes a Village" idea was a "cradle to grave" goal in which infants would be swept from the womb (when they weren't aborted) into government programs, toddlers immunized and medicated (Ritalin & Prozac), adolescents coddled and remediated, workers trained and molded and when no longer productive to the state, released to flounder."

And: "Another comment was that a children's abilities depended on the mother's education so, therefore, it was necessary to intervene at an early age and then they praised the college educated mother who would "understand the importance of early intervention." These mothers would "realize" that children belonged in day care by the time they were six months old.

They wanted mandatory "family life education (including sex ed) by age five. They said by the time a child is six, the child should know the COMPLETE process of reproduction, including the HOW-to's.

When necessary, state-mandated and state-appointed "counseling" would be necessary to remediate the whole family - not just the child.

One participant suggested shifting the emphasis from intervention (after a problem has been identified) to EARLY PREVENTION. "We need to get into the homes and find out what is going on even at the kindergarten level". (This was 1986!!!)

Source: HYPOCRITICAL POLITICIANS

7) The following article is from REDNOVA, covering a Tulsa World article, July 28, 2005. Please note the paragraph that says "The Tulsa school board approved in June a lease of $10 for 99 years with the Tulsa Educare, Inc."

$10 for a 99 year lease? How does that effect the property tax on that land? The Community Action Project is administering, which is Commnunity Service Council of Greater Tulsa, which is Susan Neal's 'Jumpstart Tulsa' project. Foundations involved in this scheme:


• Inasmuch Foundation, Bob Ross, CEO, OKC, $1 million dollar grant
  
• Ounce of Prevention Fund, Chicago-based, 'promotes best practices'
  
• George Kaiser Family Foundation, $2 million dollar grant, $500,000 to the parks dept. for new land (don't know if included in the $2 million, or on top of that). Handled through Tulsa Family Foundation.
  
• Irving Harris and Buffett Family Foundations, $1 million dollar donation
  
• Tulsa Community Foundation (TCF), handling another $500,000 from Kaiser to be spent toward social services and neighborhood improvements.
  
  Source: George Kaiser Family Foundation donations to TCF
  
  

8) Article: Childhood Ed Program Gets Boost, Tulsa World, Ginny Graham, July 28, 2005 appeared in REDNOVA on July 26, 2005. Jul. 26--With more than $10 million secured from private philanthropists, groundbreaking for the Educare early childhood center is set for Sept. 27 adjacent to the Kendall-Whittier Elementary School, 2601 E. Fifth Place.

The Educare program is a partnership between the private and public sectors to provide quality education for the youngest and poorest in the city. Tulsa banker and oilman George Kaiser led the fundraising for the program after he spent years researching the most effective investment for eliminating poverty.

Unique aspects of the program include expanded services for parents, higher levels of teacher training and education, smaller classroom ratios and increased focus on infant and toddler education.

Expanded parent services include on-site medical care, parenting courses and opportunities to continue with job training or seeking education. Eligible children will be those with working parents in the lowest economic levels.

"When we visit with people, they grasp pretty quickly that this is not an issue of government intrusion into the upbringing of children," Kaiser said. "Rather, this is a voluntary program for a select group who are obliged to work out of the home.

"Most likely, their kids are already in day care of a kind that does not provide the sensory stimulation that is critical to preparing those children for school.

"Without an intensive day-care education program like Educare, there is a good chance they will lag behind, drop out of school, become dependent upon welfare or end up in jail. We need to provide them with the equal opportunity that America promises each newborn."

About $10.7 million has been pledged by 14 individuals, private foundations and companies to build the center. The capital budget includes an endowment for expenses such as building maintenance and unknown shortfalls in government funding.

Among the private donors is the Oklahoma City-based Inasmuch Foundation, which pledged $1 million.
The foundation was created by Edith Gaylord in 1982. Upon Gaylord's death in 2001, the foundation inherited assets worth about $365 million and gives out between $15 million and $17 million each year.

Bob Ross, president and CEO of the Inasmuch Foundation, said the donation is among the foundation's largest. "Early childhood education is not just a Tulsa or Oklahoma City issue," Ross said. "We are doing great things in this arena statewide, but we can do a lot more. The concept of early childhood education is very important. "We invest money in kindergarten through 12th grade and in higher education. But if we don't have the early childhood component, the education system will be severely impacted in a negative way."

Educare comes from the Chicago-based Ounce of Prevention Fund and promotes the best practices in early childhood learning. Private money builds the center; public money is combined for operating expenses, and a local, independent board will oversee management.

Public money will include child-care subsidies from the state Department of Human Services, a food program grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Early Head Start grant administered by the Community Action Project of Tulsa County.

Ross said the foundation was particularly impressed with the parental involvement requirement and the broad base of private support. He said the best practices will be spread to other cities in Oklahoma even if those cities cannot afford to build an exact replica of the center.

"We want the leaders across the state to know this is a very important issue to us, and we are willing to go outside Oklahoma City to accomplish our goals," Ross said.

The founding donors are the George Kaiser Family Foundation with a $2 million grant and the Irving Harris and Buffett Family Foundations with a donation of $1 million. Educare is expected to open in the fall of 2006.

In planning for the construction of the center, agreements were made with Tulsa Public Schools and the city parks department to use land adjacent to the Kendall-Whittier school. The Tulsa school board approved in June a lease of $10 for 99 years with the Tulsa Educare, Inc.

The George Kaiser Family Foundation through the Tulsa Community Foundation will give $500,000 to the Tulsa parks department for new land.

An additional $500,000 from the family foundation will be placed in an account at the Tulsa Community Foundation to be spent toward social services and neighborhood improvements. A community board will help in that effort.

Currently, Tulsa County has 104 slots for the Early Head Start program, which serves infants through 3-year-olds. The latest census and economic data show that about 17,000 children from infants to 5-year-olds meet the federal poverty level.

Educare will offer 200 slots to low-income children, with at least a third going to infants and toddlers.

An effort to expand the number of slots available to the youngest children at Educare and Early Head Start is being encouraged through private sponsorships. The George Kaiser Family Foundation will match the money given to provide additional slots.