Yesterday I posted on the Civitas presentation about Smart Start. My point was about all the taxpayer funded “smart start lobbyist” were there. Today comes confirmation about how bad the problem with this organization really is.
I received the below email (follow me here it is a little complicated. It is from the Smart Start President Stephanie Fanjul who in 2008 – 2009 made $172,000 in pay and benefits (paid by your tax dollars) but it was not sent out by her paid communications staff of 4 it was instead sent by an outside Lobbyist/Public Policy Consultant (see bottom of email). Notice in paragraph 2 how many organizations sent people to the legislature and talked about them again being there today. The Fayetteville Observer reported that 100 Smart Start people were in attendance yesterday. Does not seem like they have much real work to do?
Please see the note below from Stephanie Fanjul from NCPC.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! So many of you made calls, sent emails, and used your personal time to come to Raleigh. While we did not stop Civitas from providing what Rep. Julia Howard called “an orientation” on Smart Start, we did show that Smart Start will not sit quietly by while others attempt to discredit our work on behalf of the state’s youngest children.
With help from Smart Start local partnerships in Davidson, Down East, Lee, Wake, Onslow, Cumberland, Orange, Durham, and Franklin-Granville-Vance, friends like NCaeyc, and the Lucy Daniels Center, as well as NCPC Board members and partner organizations- we had more than 60 people there. (apologies if we missed anyone!) In fact, there were so many Smart Start supporters that they had to move the meeting to a larger room!
…
Tomorrow is the second day of public hearings before the Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services. At the hearing today, we had two speakers, and a room full of Smart Start stickers. Special thanks to several local board members and NCPC Board members who came to Raleigh to speak on behalf of Smart Start.
Tomorrow the meeting will take place from 8:30 am to 9:50 am in Room 643, LOB. If you plan on attending, but have not signed up in advance, you should know that today they allowed us to sign up to speak when we arrived. See if you can do that tomorrow too.
It is an honor and delight to work with you all as we fight for what is right for NC’s children.
Thanks
Annette Newkirk
Lobbyist/Public Policy Consultant
North Carolina Child Care Coalition
(919) 692-5847
I am so proud of the great job you’re doing. As always, you know that you’re in my prayers because you need them. Keep fighting for what’s right. Everything you do counts!!! Stay encourage, love you much!!!!
You should spend your time looking at all the good things that the Smart Start funding does provide for families and early childhood educators!!!!!! Cuts in Smart Start will drastically hurt our economy and the inoccent children that it will negatively affect.
I was at the hearing where Civitas presented their findings on the Smart Start program. What I saw was a group of proponents of Smart Start who were rude and unprofessional. They were clucking and hissing when they heard things they did not like –
especially when the presenter displayed a chart of more than 25 employees of Smart Start making more than $80,000 or $100,000 a year.
This group of Smart Start employees appeared to believe that they are entitled to taxpayer money with no questions asked.
Melanie Riggs – I agree we should look at the good Smart Start does, but does that mean we should ignore what needs to be changed or improved?
I am a person who has worked and work on both sides of the system preschool and public. Children who enter our school system with no pre-organized learning are at a clear disadvantage. Gone are the days of knowing some of the alphabet, numbers and colors. They are required not just to know how to write their names but small sentences. To write you must have a concept of reading. I’ve been in kindergarten classes where you can see the advantage students who have been exposed to smart start or early childhood education. Sending a child to school without exposure to smart start or preschool, is putting a bulls eye on their back for struggles and trouble. I challenge anyone who has a vote take a day and see what it’s like in a classroom with small children and first hand why smart start is so needed.
My Wife works for a non-profit that is 50% funded by Smart Start. She works hard every day and makes a difference in the lives of the children that she works with. These children have special needs and behavioral issues that with no intervention makes it virtually impossible for them to attend child care. Her specific role is to give child care providers training and strategies they would otherwise not receive, that allow them to care for children with special needs and behavioral issues. The time spent with these children and childcare provides makes sense because it is an investment. It keeps the parents at work instead of forcing them to stay home to provide care and then rely on you and I to pay their way. It helps small private businesses (daycares) provide a more valuable and cost effective product to their customers (parents). Most importantly it is an amazing savings when you compare the cost of early childhood intervention to the cost of adult care, rehabilitation, incarceration, etc. that statistics prove large percentages of these children will be subject to as adults if they do not receive proper care as children.
I am a conservative. My Wife and I cancel each other’s votes out most of the time, but I can see the importance of what she does because I understand the value of making sure that all children get the assistance they need so they will not have to rely on you and I and our tax money when they become adults.
I am the owner of a large child development center and I employ over seventy people in the community. Without assistance from Smart Start the children we serve would not be as successful and parents would not have needed resources. Cutting Smart Start would negatively impact many taxpaying families.
I want to set the record straight about Smart Start staff going to Raleigh on state dollars – we each used a persoanl vacation day, paid for our own expences and rode in a bus donated by a local church that supports the Smart Start efforts in Mecklenburg County. Our efforts were not focused on our jobs but on the impact to our Mecklenburg County children who will be devestated by the proposed spending cuts – they are the victims!
All this talk from people with a vested interest in Smart Start. It makes me think that just maybe some felt the sting of truth in the presentation made by a member of the Civitas organization. If the high priced administration of Smart Start and its affiliates would reduce their salaries, maybe there would be more money available for the children it was intended for. To the children who were displaced, try your local churches, many of them offer scholarship programs, without public funding.
Should the church that provided the bus that Lee Henderson rode on to the General Assembly lose its tax exempt status? Seems to me that participating in an explicitly political event should cause that to happen.
Mr. Francis De Luca,
I attended this, meant to be small, meeting on Tuesday afternoon and I drove my own car, used my own gas and I took time off just so I could attend. As far as your statement “Does not seem like they have much real work to do?” is concerned, I am swamped with paperwork that I have to fill out for each child that I visit and I normally work from home at least 2 nights a week with out pay or comp time. So when I feel that a conservative analsyt group is going to make a presentation about a program that is near and dear to my heart, I want to know what is being said. I just wish you would realize that alot children are not born with a silver spoon and they need support before they go into kindergarten or they fall behind. I have to admit I am very much a conservative and a registerd Republican, but when it comes to education, at any level, I will support the person that knows the importance of Early Education from the age of Birth all the way through the 12th grade and beyond. So please choose your words carefully before you make taxpayers think that I am using their money to advocate for my job because that is not the case at all. Your comments are very immature to say the least. Thank you for listening……
While I am appalled at the idea of cutting funding to a prgram that I know, first-hand helps so MANY needy children, there are obviously people who do not know the real benefits of programs that are run correctly and provide to our neediest and most vulnerable children and families. Smart Start funding in Charlotte supports phenomenal programs such as Safe Journey under the Communities In Schools helm and many others doing fabulous work.
For those responding that they took the day(s) off work and were using their own money to get to Raleigh, that is except for the Charlotte folks who used a church vehicle (So much for separation of church and state :) ), the point is that private sector workers can not just drop what they are doing to run to Raleigh to lobby. In fact most government employees can’t just take a day off and go lobby (Wisconsin excepted) which is the other important consideration.
Smart Start is entirely taxpayer supported but is free from many of the constraints of government organization and employment. In many cases the remuneration and freedom are magnitudes greater!
Mr. De Luca,
Could you elaborate on the constraints of government employees to which Smart Start employees (both NCPC & Local Partnership) are free from? Would you please also explain your remark about remuneration and freedoms as they would be contrasted to the average state or private sector employee. I am under the impression that the average employee of a not-for-profit organization earns less than a counterpart in private or government employ. I am of the opinion that for services that are deemed worthy of being provided, the non-profit option provides a considerable savings to taxpayers.
Smart Start provides a needed service for our youngest “students” but the administrative costs must be cut drastically. Since the Division of Child Development spends 5.37% of their budget on administrative expenses and Smart Start spends 8.33%, Smart Start must cut administrative costs. That would save 2.3 million dollars and provide almost 500 extra subsidies to needy children.
Where the rude Smart Start employees at the presentation concerned primarily for the children, or simply their own pocketbooks?
Interesting discussion. A correction and a comment: 1. Smart Start is not entirely funded by public dollars. There are match requirements and several foundations provide generous support. 2. It is a shameful sentiment in our society that those who work on behalf of children are not deserving of adequate or even more-than-adequate compensation. Smart Start administrators effectively oversee millions of dollars. Why wouldn’t taxpayers want to make sure qualified people watch over these funds? Smart Start has won numerous accolades for effective management of financial resources. And they provide oversight with far less red-tape than government. I don’t understand why fiscal conservatives are so opposed to this public-private partnership model.