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On February 5, 2007, Bret Busse testified to the Minnesota House Ways & Means Committee at Pilot Knob Elementary in Eagan, Minnesota. Here are his prepared remarks:
My wife, Kate, and I started taking our daughter, Claire, to ECFE classes six years ago when she
was just a few months old. The education and opportunity to interact with other parents in the
same situation was tremendous. Now, with three young children, Jack is four and Will is three,
the parenting skills I learned in class have been invaluable.
My wife still gets together with the moms she met in that first class six years ago. They formed an
immediate bond and since they’re still in the same situation, with children the same age, and now
multiple kids, they continue to learn from each other.
I’ve taken several classes specifically for dads. There aren’t a lot of resources for dads. These
classes provide the opportunity to meet other guys in the same situation – new fathers, trying to
balance work, marriage, kids – and help each other figure how to do it all. This is the best way I
know to strengthen a family – and a marriage for that matter.
ECFE and School Readiness programs really are an investment in the community. Parents get
better at being parents. Kids are better prepared for school and the rest of their lives. Parents get
involved early and stay involved. Kids do better in school. Families meet other families facing the
same challenges – and learn ways to overcome them. Everyone in the community wins.
None of this is for families of a specific social or economic level. All families with young children
need education and support to do one of the most difficult jobs we have. I have two bachelor’s
degrees and an MBA – none of which prepared me for parenthood. I’ve had classes with lawyers
and guys working two jobs to makes ends meet. We were all able to learn something from every
discussion – from each other and the great teachers. Their training and all the research behind it
provide answers to so many questions. They really are fantastic.
After immediately benefiting from the program, I joined the district’s Advisory Council. I served
three years, the last two as co-chair. My time on the Council was some of the most rewarding
work I’ve ever done. I became intimately aware of the positive impact these programs have on all
the families in our community and the loss we’re all feeling since they’ve been cut so severely.
I’m now the chair of the Foundation for Early Childhood Family Services, a non-profit foundation
dedicated to raising funds for our district’s program. We’re constantly searching for donations and
grants. While this work is equally rewarding, and I’m proud to be part of such an important
endeavor, I think it’s sad that we exist at all and would like to think that someday we can dissolve
the foundation because the program is financially sound.
But I know that’s pie in the sky. So instead, we don’t pretend there’s a silver bullet solution. We
hit up the school board, local businesses, parents, foundations like McKnight, and you guys – all
of whom can help.
We do this because we know how important it is to start early. Investing when kids are five and in
kindergarten is too late. We have to think about helping children and parents long before
kindergarten, if we really want make a difference. I’d love to reach some of our School Readiness
ELL students when they are 3 years old, but we don’t even have the money to serve all the 4 year
olds who need it.
One of our other programs is called Family School. It’s a family literacy program supported with
ECFE funds, and an example of how ECFE dollars support our neediest families with the most
intense programming. Each year we head up to the Capitol with a group of immigrant families
from this program to meet with our local representatives and senators. Their stories are amazing.
I still think about one of the women I met a couple of years ago, Lizeth, from Mexico. She’d been
in the program for a year and all the English she knew came from her family school classes. She
got up every morning at 2:30 to deliver papers, then went back to bed from 5 to 7. Then she, her
husband, and their two-year-old went to family school together until lunch. Her husband then
went to work at night. They were working on their GEDs and becoming citizens and both want to
go to college. I know that family is working harder than mine, and probably harder than anyone in
this room. They can’t imagine life without family school, and I can’t imagine a better example of
how worthwhile these programs are.
I would like to respectfully encourage the committee to make sure the Education committees
have enough money to adequately fund to these programs. The current discussion of restoring
funding to previous levels is a good place to start, but even that isn’t enough. You have a
tremendous opportunity to do the right thing. I hope it happens.
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