A Civitas investigation reveals large compensation packages and salaries in the Smart Start organization which account for a large portion of the reported administrative overhead of 11% of the program. High salaries are particularly pronounced in many of Smart Start key administrators’ compensation. For example, a recent IRS filing shows North Carolina Partnership for Children (NCPC) (Smart Start) President Stephanie Fanjul earning $173,814 in total compensation, including benefits. Large compensation packages extend throughout the Smart Start infrastructure, as seen in the compensation figures below.
These compensation packages divert critical resources from needy children to well funded administrative salaries. As a reference point, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, who heads the agency through which the Smart Start funds flow and oversees a budget of $3.9 billion earns a salary of $120,000 plus benefits. In contrast, NCPC President Fanjul oversees a $188 million budget and earns $145,935 in salary alone. Fanjul’s salary is more than Governor Bev Perdue’s.
Below is a chart with the total compensation figures for top earning Smart Start administrators. Data for this chart was derived from public records requests and the most up to date IRS 990 forms available (2008/2009 and 2009/2010 form depending on availability). Total compensation includes salary plus the value of benefits, such as health insurance, retirement contributions, etc. Civitas studied 65 of the existing 77 local partnerships, as well as the state organization known as NCPC. The cutoff for the below chart was derived from the average 2008 -2009 private sector compensation for North Carolina workers of approximately $55,000.
For a longer list of positions and payroll, see below. Note: Figures may not include total benefit amounts.
| Name | Job Title | Smart Start Organization | Total Annual Compensation |
| Stephanie Fanjul | President | State | $173,814 |
| Eve Hansen | Executive Director | Cumberland | $120,370 |
| Pamela Dowdy | Executive Director | Wake | $115,154 |
| Ron Bradford | Executive Director | Buncombe | $112,506 |
| Leslie Karlsson | Senior Dir. Finance and Operations | State | $110,000 |
| Jane Myer | Executive Director | Mecklenburg | $108,293 |
| Heniretta Zalakind | Executive Director | Nash & Edgecombe | $106,635 |
| Pauline Mckee | Executive Director | Randolph | $103,420 |
| Susan Perry-Manning | Senior Director for Policy and Programs | State | $102,000 |
| Connie Holton | Finance Director | State | $98,981 |
| Marie Clark | Chief Financial Officer | Cumberland | $98,886 |
| James Dodson | Information Technology Director | State | $98,837 |
| Victoria Byrd | Executive Director | Sampson | $98,693 |
| Linda Blanton | Planning, Development & Communications Director | Cumberland | $97,785 |
| Magda Baligh | Executive Director | Halifax | $97,145 |
| Lynn Vick | Child Care Resource & Referral Director | Cumberland | $96,609 |
| Chuck Kraft | Executive Director | Forsyth | $94,700 |
| Cindy Watkins | Executive Director | Alamance | $94,087 |
| Keith Sylvester | Executive Director | Lenoir & Greene | $94,069 |
| Larry Kowalski | Finance/Contracts Manager | Buncombe | $92,353 |
| Jean Goodman | Executive Director | Guilford | $91,663 |
| Marta Koesling | Executive Director | Iredell | $90,273 |
| Linda Leonard | Executive Director | Davidson | $89,052 |
| Alvin Keller | Information Technology Director | Cumberland | $88,944 |
| Scott Lodder | Systems Analyst | State | $88,820 |
| Dwight Morris | Executive Director | Johnston | $88,706 |
| Janet Nelson | Executive Director | New Hanover | $87,044 |
| Ann Benfield | Executive Director | Cabarrus | $86,799 |
| Martha Brown | Executive Director | Richmond | $84,565 |
| Norma Boyd | Executive Director | Jones | $84,101 |
| Rose Powers | Program Administrator | Cumberland | $82,207 |
| Tina Newcomb | Communications & Development Administrator | Cumberland | $82,183 |
| Margaret Samuels | Executive Director | Orange | $81,387 |
| Tom Mitchell/Christine Bauer | Financial Consultant | State | $80,672 |
| Gary Carr | Controller | Wake | $80,429 |
| Marjorie Barroso | Accounting and Contracting Manager | State | $80,224 |
| Elizabeth Santana | QEI/ More at Four Director | Wake | $80,212 |
| Cathy Taylor | Executive Director | Cleveland | $80,173 |
| Marie Lilly | Controller | Cumberland | $79,600 |
| Denauvo Robinson | Executive Director | Albermarle | $78,749 |
| Executive Director | Stokes | $78,493 | |
| Executive Director | Franklin-Granville-Vance | $78,257 | |
| Finance Director/Contracts Manager | Iredell | $78,215 | |
| Amy Barry | Program Manager | Buncombe | $77,964 |
| Shelia Orth | Executive Director | Martin-Pitt | $77,275 |
| Executive Director | Dare | $77,143 | |
| Anna Troutman | Director Program Coordination & Evaluation | Wake | $76,389 |
| Elaine Scarborough | Executive Director | Anson | $76,308 |
| Executive Director | Burke | $76,212 | |
| Finance Manager | Stokes | $76,193 | |
| Dawn Rochelle | Executive Director | Onslow | $75,265 |
| Leslie Moss | CCR&R Manager | Buncombe | $75,161 |
| Lois Slade | State Training and Support Manager | State | $74,278 |
| Jeri Arledge | Executive Director | Caldwell | $74,255 |
| Director of Family Support Services | Iredell | $73,983 | |
| Sandra Roberts | Finance Director | Durham | $72,900 |
| Linda Gironda | Executive Director | Brunswick | $72,747 |
| Carrie Stone | Program Director | Alamance | $72,554 |
| Don Magoon | Executive Director | Wayne | $72,131 |
| Director of School Readiness | Iredell | $72,011 | |
| Program Manager | Cabarrus | $71,340 | |
| Lyn Hankins | Executive Director | Lee | $71,209 |
| Genevieve Megginson | Executive Director | Chatham | $70,982 |
| Executive Director | Rutherford-Polk | $70,964 | |
| Finance Director | Johnston | $70,848 | |
| Director of Quality Support Services | Iredell | $70,441 | |
| Steve Riley | System Administrator | Cumberland | $70,373 |
| Laura Benson | Executive Director | Durham | $70,000 |
| Catherine Etters | Fiscal Officer | Mecklenburg | $70,000 |
| Paul Bamford | Human Resources Director | State | $69,921 |
| Gary Yellin | Executive Director | Harnett | $69,639 |
| Laura Welborn | Executive Director | Wilkes | $69,344 |
| Program and Evaluation Director | Durham | $68,580 | |
| Ann Meletzke | Family Services Manager | Alamance | $68,227 |
| Tracy Zimmerman | Communications Director | State | $68,000 |
| Barbara Whitley | Executive Director | Stanly | $67,967 |
| Sherry Peel | Executive Director | Carteret | $67,498 |
| Michelle Malcom | Finance Director | Forsyth | $67,300 |
| Executive Director | Lincoln & Gaston | $67,292 | |
| Director of Child Care Solutions | Iredell | $66,120 | |
| Child Care Health Consultant | Iredell | $66,029 | |
| Program Manager | Johnston | $65,816 | |
| Executive Director | Yadkin | $65,656 | |
| Kay Overton | Executive Director | Tyrell-Washington | $65,457 |
| Sandra Hudspeth | Executive Director | Caswell | $65,339 |
| Dana Walker | Finance/HR Manager | Alamance | $65,203 |
| Lisa Woolard | Executive Director | Beaufort-Hyde | $64,797 |
| Executive Director | Montgomery | $64,392 | |
| Kimberly Lyke Salyards | Executive Director | Catawba | $64,300 |
| Director of Programs | Rutherford-Polk | $64,126 | |
| CCR&R Program Coordinator | Stokes | $63,793 | |
| Arnita Davis | More at Four Program Manager | Cumberland | $63,528 |
| Carole Mangum | Accounting Manager | Cumberland | $63,284 |
| Melinda Schlesinger | Evaluation Manager | Wake | $63,028 |
| Program Manager | Davidson | $62,964 | |
| Early Childhood Specialist | Alamance | $62,950 | |
| Program Evaluator/More@ 4 | Stokes | $62,801 | |
| Executive Director | Moore | $62,748 | |
| Finance Manager | Wilson | $62,744 | |
| Andrea Tarantino | Program Manager/Elv | New Hanover | $62,497 |
| Rahel Gashaw | Senior Accountant | Mecklenburg | $62,462 |
| Executive Director | McDowell | $61,991 | |
| Joy Sotolongo | Research and Evaluation Director | State | $61,958 |
| Resource & Referral Director | Moore | $61,879 | |
| Susan Clark | Monitoring Manager | State | $61,543 |
| Jenny Whitley | MAF Director | Forsyth | $61,200 |
| Debi Bartholomew | More at Four Manager | Wake | $61,072 |
| School Readiness Director | Johnston | $61,054 | |
| Krista Turner | Manager – ECC/PPS/CCHC | New Hanover | $60,993 |
| Executive Director | Ashe | $60,722 | |
| CCR&R Office Administrator | Brunswick | $60,691 | |
| Executive Director | Wilson | $60,426 | |
| Ann Ward | Local Partnership Support Specialist | State | $59,708 |
| Tom Mitchell/Christine Bauer | Financial Consultant | State | $59,645 |
| Cynthia Turner | Health Specialist | State | $59,477 |
| Joan Williams | Executive Director | Duplin | $59,340 |
| Don Stewart | Program Compliance Manager | Davidson | $59,173 |
| Debbie Harrell | Finance Director | New Hanover | $59,123 |
| More at Four Coordinator | Buncombe | $59,033 | |
| Brian Massie | System Administrator | State | $59,000 |
| Finance Manager | Harnett | $58,971 | |
| Executive Director | Davie | $58,949 | |
| Debbi Kennerson-Webb | Childcare Services Manager | Alamance | $58,882 |
| Cinda Amen | Early Childhood Development Director | Forsyth | $58,800 |
| Candy Tilley | Vice-President | Albermarle | $58,538 |
| Barbara Rein | Program Evaluator | Mecklenburg | $58,191 |
| Fiscal Affairs Administrator | Beaufort-Hyde | $58,137 | |
| Pat Hansen | Evaluation Specialist | State | $58,016 |
| Finance Director | Guilford | $58,000 | |
| Louise Bannon | Director of Communications | Wake | $58,000 |
| Program Coordinator | Wilson | $57,826 | |
| Harry Stephens/Jackie McClain | Financial Monitor | State | $57,799 |
| Executive Director | Scotland | $57,299 | |
| Eunice Murray | Staff Accountant | Mecklenburg | $57,200 |
| Wilbur Smith | Executive Director | Columbus | $57,124 |
| Program & Evaluation Director | Dare | $57,073 | |
| Leslie English | Financial Analyst | State | $57,008 |
| Gwen Edwards | Training Coordinator | Buncombe | $56,780 |
| Denise Johnson | Early Childhood Manager | Cumberland | $56,424 |
| Gale Wilson | Subsidy and Local Partnership Support Specialist | State | $56,380 |
| Lillian Bryant | Executive Director | Bladen | $56,282 |
| Emmy Marshall | Family Support Specialist | State | $56,255 |
| Executive Director | Person | $56,253 | |
| Ted Whiteside | Fund Development Specialist | Durham | $55,791 |
| Flavia McKeithan | Support Services Administrator | New Hanover | $55,123 |
| More at Four Director | Cleveland | $55,053 | |
| More at Four Director | Moore | $55,053 | |
| Randall Hardgrove | Assistant Manager – ECC/PPS | New Hanover | $55,031 |
| Lee Henderson | Senior Program Manager | Mecklenburg | $55,000 |
Note: figures revised for Moore County
I’d sure like to know how you got that number for Moore. That’s 28% higher than the report I shared with your representative, a Mr. Henson.
Get real!
This report is very misleading because the total compensation amoiunts listed above include payroll taxes and health benefit costs. The list gives the impression that these are the take home salaries for staff and that is simply not correct. The report also compares these salaries to average 2008 -2009 private sector compensation for North Carolina workers; this is a wholly inacurate comparison because it ignores factors such as the education background and experience of the various workers included in the average. The report is misleading on this point also because it does not reveal the range of private sector compensation included in the average of $55,000. The public should be wary of such misleading and incomplete reporting.
I don’t know where this number came from because it is not my salary. This is very misleading and a dis-service to the public.
Since when does Civitas care about “needy children”? Seems like a hit-job done to justify GOP’s crusade to defund the program.
I think it’s important to understand Smart Start’s dog in the fight. They are certainly well compensated.
What this article does not say is far more important than what it says and speaks very favorably to how well Smart Start manages money. Smart Start employs about 1000 people statewide and the average salary is approximately $36,000. So, on average, Smart Start employees earn $19,000 less than the AVERAGE private sector employee in North Carolina according to the statistics in this article.
Please tell us this, are you in any way, shape or form, concerned about the most precious things? The answer would be NO. You have spent useless time gathering inaccurate information and have spent no time concentrating on what is important. You should be ashamed of yourselves…each of you!!! The citizens of NC will not fall for this foolishness. The only pressing issue is the welfare of our children. You all can not possibly be parents….and God help you if you ever have to depend on the very ones that you are hurting. Shame on you Civitas!!!!!
Glad to see people are reading this. Couple of comments:
*Yes I do have children and I was a responsible parent and provided for them. As I have not criticized your parenting skills please refrain from criticizing mine – of course demonizing a person rather than debate the issue is a favorite tactic of the liberal left.
*On saying that the “average salary” is $36,000 is not what the article is discussing, we tried to determine total compensation not salary.
Ms. Megginson, your data comes from the FY09-10 990 file. Salary: 62,086 + Benefits: 8896 comes out to 70,982.
It’s disappointing that Civitas uses inaccurate and confusing numbers.
There figures are misleading, it does not take into account for education and number of years working with the organization. The executive director in Wilkes County has been there for 15 years.
While I understand the budget debate is important and necessary, it just seems like early childhood is taking the biggest hit. Why can not budget cuts be evenly distributed?
But if your point was you don’t like Smart Start and you want it eliminated, believe me, we got.
Our point all along has been to make a smarter investment in early childcare. Rooting out areas where there is excess so that we can reform those areas and increase access to children who need those sorts of programs.
I’m so glad that I am smart enough to do my own research and advocate for my child. Smart Start is heavily monitored and scrutinized in state audits which can be found online. Audits that are conducted by independent firms. It’s all about the ripple effect. If programs like Smart Start are eliminated, a huge portion of child care subsidy goes with it (about one-third in most areas). In my county, Smart Start gave about $800,000 to Department of Social Services for Child Care Subsidy. Without subsidy, hundreds of children would be without quality child care. If I can’t afford child care, that means I can’t work and thus need other forms of government assistance. Unemployment rates increase. Economy continues to suffer. Civitas is obviously politically motivated in this smear campaign of misinformation. I encourage everyone to do their OWN thorough research.
Lisa,
Civitas has been advocating all along for INCREASING childcare subsidies. Smart Start subsidies could be consolidated into DSS and it would INCREASE the amount of children that we could provide affordable childcare to simply because DSS spends less on administration that Smart Start does. Please do your homework on those figures, I wrote an article on that. Here is the link:
http://www.nccivitas.org/2011/smart-start-overhead-takes-from-kids/
Andrew,
thanks for the link but I read that already. Ok I’m always willing to play devil’s advocate. Let’s just say you were a good boy last year and Santa gave you a clue for Christmas. Elimination still doesn’t help other issues. For instance, it’s been proven that quality early childhood programs have long term economic benefits. Here’s the link: http://www.nectac.org/~pdfs/pubs/econbene.pdf I think we can both agree that the economy needs as much of that as possible.I also found out that Smart Start administers grants to child care providers that help them while pursuing an early childhood degree. There are also grants that help child cares buy learning materials that they could not afford otherwise. In my book, anything that improves the quality of my child’s education is of great importance to me. I do wonder why the Moore county numbers were revised, especially by so much? Makes me curious about how much of this and all the other Civitas reports have been ‘revised’. Considering this over zealous misconstrued smear campaign I have witnessed with Civitas, I’m disgusted. Everything seems very biased and imbalanced. I don’t feel this group is thinking of the children in any capacity at all.
Not all positions are paid entirely out of Smart Start dollars. I think this distinction needs to be made.
I have submitted numerous comments to Mr. Henson asking why he doesn’t discuss the quality of early care and education in his articles. I would be interested in understanding Civitas’ position on quality early education, because it appears that Civitas in interested in attacking initiatives that have proven to improve quality and outcomes for children.
I just noticed that my salary is listed in this article and I haven’t worked for Smart Start for several months. This sheds more doubt on the entire list.
What are the total compensation packages for all Civitas employees? Does Civitas receive any funding other than the hard-earned donations of citizens?
I don’t have small children nor do I work for the State. What I do know it is time to consolidate all agencies that duplicate efforts and Smart Start does along with More at Four. Taxpayers and the State should be looking everywhere to cut costs and these areas are not immune. There is duplication and waste and if consolidating allows more to go to direct services than administration, as an average taxpayer, I say do it.
These programs are a waste of tax dollars. They use children as an excuse to create more bureaucracy. Parents themselves should be funding these extra programs through private sector positions not tax dollars. As a parent, I took the responsibility of preparing my children for their pre-school years, provided for them and their needs during school, and additionally prepared them for their adult years. Now, instead, we’re bombarded with programs that coddle to moochers, ‘non-parent’ parents, and excessive unnecessary state employees with excessive salaries and compensation. Amazing to me that they are nearly all WOMEN in these positions, and they’ll still complain about unequal pay and justify their jobs! Those that continue to back these programs are the same ones who back government education with the countless waste and poor education provided, instead of it turning to private sector education. THAT’S WHY OUR EDUCATION STATISTICS CONTINUE TO FALL IN WORLD RANKINGS (even with these BS programs).
I’d like Civitas to investigate and report on any provable positive
effect this expenditure has on student performance. Do SS students
compare favorably with non SS at Grade 2, Grade 6, High School?
If not, take an axe to it and use the money to fund scholarships to charter schools.
To Lisa – You advocate for these expenditures and then add that it provides for child care subsidies and grants for these educators, etc, funded by more tax dollars. That is the problem with this whole system. You expect all taxpayers to fund the needs of you and your children, because you were not responsible enough to NOT have kids until you could properly afford to fund their needs. That means saving money instead of spending every dime and then complaining that you don’t have enough. Nothing but excuse after excuse for your entitlements. We need to get rid of all government programs and give it back to actual charities and donations as they do not squander their money and limit free-bees, forcing them to find employment and care for themselves and their children. I, for one, have no sympathy for whiners like you or you kids who will learn to do as you do!!!!
@Jake, who wrote: ” Amazing to me that they are nearly all WOMEN in these positions, and they’ll still complain about unequal pay and justify their jobs!”
>>> I noticed the same thing. How many of these “women” have lost their jobs during this “mancession?” The feminist squeaky-wheel has been greased over and over again and this Civitas list we can see the end result. Nearly 2/3’s of new college graduates are women…..and then there’s the Lilly Ledbetter Law. Ridiculous. The problem with men is that they do not have strident/militant governmental and NGO organizations advocating on their behalf. If we’re going to have class wars in this country, let’s have a gender war, too !! If anyone thinks this is about “the children” they need to lay off the Kool-Aid before they overdose.
Joy Sotolongo says: (Mar 22, 2011 at 21:04) “I just noticed that my salary is listed in this article and I haven’t worked for Smart Start for several months. This sheds more doubt on the entire list.” Well, Joy, education has been wasted on you. If you read the article and comprehend that the figures come from 2008/2009 and/or 2009/2010 tax and salary records, you would see that you are now in 2010/2011 – idiot!
Hey John – Totally agree. Biggest detriments to this country is the feminist and liberal movements. Ever wonder where all of these entitlement programs come from? This nation has been taken over by women, minorities, and liberals in man jobs. They then change the rules to make it even easier on themselves. Tell me one program that a hard working , WHITE male in this country receives (not that we need one). Instead, we proliferate a useless and needy population which is spending this nation into bankruptcy and use the POOR children as justification. I for one can’t wait til this nation goes bankrupt and all of these whimps starve! All that will be left is the strong, hard-working population and we’ll start from scratch.
Jake,
It is fine if you don’t agree with someone, but to call someone an idiot is inappropriate. It is fine to argue about policy, but when you start name calling your argument loses merit. Very uncalled for, and I really think you could have stated your point better.
Wow! A whole lot of ‘deer in the headlights’ comments.
A person mentioned that, in their county, Smart Start ‘GAVE’ DSS $800.000. If they can do that, they sound over-funded to me…
Then there is the funding given away in ‘GRANTS for grown ups’ that help them while pursuing an early childhood degree and GRANTS to stock private enterprise (“help child cares buy learning materials”). Slush fund, anyone?
Taking comments from the above posts, we have “1000 people statewide” serving “hundreds of kids”. Maybe it’s ‘thousands of kids’, but who knows? See this link for the results of a study that had a bunch of waffling and no results when smart people tried to figure out who was being served by Smart Start. http://www.fpg.unc.edu/smartstart/SSclient_IS.htm
OK, so it’s OLD. I would venture to guess that the accountability has not improved! (And check out the wikipedia article too- it’s a gas.) You want to point fingers at Civitas for what you perceive to be their disapproval because they are shining light on what this program is/is not doing, but the fact is that there are a lot of others who have tried to seek justification for your existence too- to no avail.
Smart Start Motto: We do good ‘for the c-h-i-l-d-r-e-n! (But don’t ask us to prove it). I am not doubting that many involved certainly CARE- just that this program may not be the best solution to good end results.
The above list names 135 EXECUTIVE positions that siphon off over 9 MILLION dollars, and that does not include facilities, staff, or those with ‘boots on the ground’ doing the real WORK!
None of which points out that with all of this ‘professional’ babysitting, children are no more equipped to start school than ‘back in the day’ when the neighbor’s daughter babysat and/or caring family members chipped in. Same with the pre-K programs at elementary schools. Mom’s day off. Just a big drain on the economy and precious resources.
… re John & Jake’s observation on the plethora of females on the list… This is to be expected given that the Smart Start program was founded in part to provide GJAGW (good jobs at good wages) for the fairer sex. For my part I would love to have been a fly on the wall during the interviewing process which resulted in the manly hires… especially Buncombe’s Mr. Bradford. Just what was it that these manly candidates said or showed that tipped the scales in their favor? Maybe they will post their resumes on this site for a competency inspection…
Any continuance of Smart Start must be based on solid, undoctored, evidence that the program is effective. I spent my life working in private industry where unproven boondoggles were rapidly scrapped.
As for Jake’s comments…..we live in a society where government has created specific “protected classes” which is code for sanctioned discrimination because protected classes have, effectively, more rights than individuals NOT in the protected classes. If you look at the list of protected classes, it includes blacks, Latinos, women, the disabled, and the GBLT’s.
That leaves only one “group” UNprotected – non-disabled straight white males. Don’t know about the rest of you but, I for one, want to live in a country that respects everyone’s right EQUALLY. We should hold that truth ‘self-evident’ that all men (meaning: people) are created equal. “Protected classes” is a clever invention of the Progressive Left and is a self-serving act of
‘soft’ vote-buying.
These bureaucrats, like those teachers in Wisconsin, are trying to protect their their goodies. If you really care about “the children” and you want to subsidize child care for lower income people, all you have to do is voucherize it. Use a sliding eligibility scale. Parents with vouchers could take kids where they liked and you would only need about five or ten bureaucrats to “administer” the program. Problem solved. Money saved. Plus: pilot project for the rest of the education system.
These bureaucrats, like those teachers in Wisconsin, are trying to protect their goodies. If you really care about “the children” and you want to subsidize child care for lower income people, all you have to do is voucherize it. Use a sliding eligibility scale. Parents with vouchers could take kids where they liked and you would only need about five or ten bureaucrats to “administer” the program. Problem solved. Money saved. Plus: pilot project for the rest of the education system.
Your reporting is inaccurate, misleading and tries to suck people into the wrong conclusions about a worth while program that benefits the people of North Carolina.
a pitiful provocation that is just designed to pit us against each other. these professionals get professional salaries for important work. please pick on the business world if you want to stir outrage over undeserved salaries. this is a clever class-warfare distraction from your attack on services for North Carolina children.
As a “real” child care worker that is on the front line providing high quality childcare to children and families I am appalled at these figures. Since 2007 child care subsidies have remained the same and now I see the major reason is because of those inflated salaries paid to individulas that do not have any direct contact/impact with children or families. In Durham County the current market rate for a 3-5 year old child being served in a five star child care center is $766.00 per month(these rates have not changed since 2007)if the average worker of smart start was not paid “36,000” to shuffle papers to ensure the clean audits that they are too often proud to point out, approximatley four children could have attended a five star quality child care center. How can smart start continue to confuse the public with their self rightous position on continued funding?
To melatr7… In the interest of providing a fair and balanced set of links, check this one out: http://news.duke.edu/2011/03/smart_start.html. Unlike your link from a study released in 1998 that was unclear on the impact of Smart Start, this independent study released MARCH 2011 by Duke is pretty clear: Smart Start works!
There are multiple positions listed above that are not funded with any Smart Start dollars. That’s right, several positions on this list are 100% funded with OTHER, NON-Smart Start dollars. Furthermore, a number of positions are paid from a combination of sources, including significant portions from OTHER THAN Smart Start funds. Civitas is well aware of this but conveniently left out these details so as to inflate the implied administrative Smart Start cost.
For SS independent Proof 9 – who is the same person as VERY MISLEADING, the Duke study is of the impact of BOTH Smart Start and More at Four so it is more a study of the impact of spending a lot of money in a specific geographic area. It is not a validation of Smart Start. More at Four has had some independent studies that shows it may be having a positive effect. We have seen no independent studies that Smart Start has the same impact. In fact the last study of any kind on Smart Start was in 2003 the best we can determine. 8 years later one miraculously appears that lumps two programs together and declares success.
I notice that this article and the other Civitas article mentioned in the comments both use misleading information to attack Smart Start. Both articles claim that the intent is to improve the spending on early child education/development by reducing administrative costs, but I have to ask where is your proof that the things you’re suggesting would work? You seem to be more interested in printing short, misleading articles than offering any real thoughtout solutions. I really doubt that you’re going to fix all the states problems with a hand full of short articles like this.
When are you going to print a real article that suggests real solutions that is not peppered with the misleading use of facts? What is your solution for making Smart Start better for the kids? If Smart Start needs to be scraped, how would its function be replaced or integrated into other agencies and how would those agencies be expanded to be able to accomplish those rolls? Does North Carolina and the U.S. need good early childhood programs? Will a good early childhood system prevent the U.S. from falling behind in the global economy?
To answer your inevitable question about what I mean by “misleading”:
One example in this article is, you compare directors and managers against average, private sector compensation. I would certainly hope that people with a 4-year college degree or higher in managerial positions could beat an average that includes people who may not even have a college degree.
Another example would be that this article says that data was collected from 65 local partnerships, but there were only 57 mentioned in the salary data. Where’s the data from the other 8?
Just simply wanted to point out I’m thrilled I happened on the web page!
http://test2.com
It’s difficult to find experienced people in this particular topic,
however, you seem like you know what you’re talking about!
Thanks