BHB/5/14
Sponsored by John Paul Kukulka, Aarnav Khanna, Luke Sanders of Ravenwood High School
This legislation was filed in the Education category
Presented as part of the YIG Volunteer 2024 conference
| 1 | BE IT ENACTED BY THE TENNESSEE YMCA YOUTH LEGISLATURE |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Section I: Definition of Terms |
| 4 | Childcare Learning Center (CLC): A space used for the care and education of children aged 4-5 |
| 5 | through PreK standards. |
| 6 | Adequate: Sufficient to provide previous educational standards and foster cognitive development |
| 7 | in children attending a PreK center. |
| 8 | Deficit: An area in which there are little to no facilities to provide early childhood education, or a |
| 9 | facility that is approaching or at its maximum student capacity. |
| 10 | TN-ELDS: A set of developmental standards to provide learning milestones throughout early |
| 11 | education focusing on three categories: |
| 12 | Approaches to Learning: skills such as maintaining focus, persistence in solving an essential |
| 13 | question, understanding a message, completing a difficult on-level puzzle, or building block |
| 14 | structures. |
| 15 | Social and Personal Competencies: expressing feelings and wants, communal relations, and |
| 16 | understanding rules within a system. |
| 17 | Literary Standards: able to clarify words or phrases, point out essential meanings within a text, |
| 18 | and demonstrate proper uses of conventions within standard English grammar. |
| 19 | On-level: Equivalent to the overall set of students' developmental pace and meeting the state’s |
| 20 | standards. |
| 21 | Materials: Items that will benefit the classroom such as pencils, scissors, chairs, technology, etc. |
| 22 | Universal: Free and accessible to all eligible students within an area. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Section II: Statistics for Early Education |
| 25 | Effective early education can improve student performance by up to 45 percentile points. |
| 26 | Universal Pre-K education being available rose labor force participation in women by 11%. |
| 27 | Children who attend childcare learning centers have an 82% chance of mastering basic learning |
| 28 | skills by age 11, unlike those who don’t with a 45% chance. |
| 29 | Preschool children’s brains are 90% the size of an adult brain by the age of 6, stressing the |
| 30 | importance of early cognitive development and assistance through CLCs. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | Section III: Requirements for Childcare Learning Centers |
| 33 | All childcare learning centers must provide adequate, equal education upon receiving subsidies |
| 34 | from the TN government to help promote a unified educational system that does not favor certain |
| 35 | groups. |
| 36 | These childcare learning centers must have a qualified staff team that is paid relative to other |
| 37 | |
| 38 | Childcare learning centers will be provided in an area where there is a deficit of early education. |
| 39 | They will be evenly spaced out following population distribution in Tennessee among government |
| 40 | districts. |
| 41 | Childcare learning centers will have designated school zones to divide the population across the |
| 42 | schools properly. |
| 43 | Zones are determined by the population surveyed through a census in a government district |
| 44 | regarding the number of eligible children in the area. They will construct an evenly distributed |
| 45 | number of schools among the population. |
| 46 | |
| 47 | Section IV: Educational Program Breakdown |
| 48 | Tennessee-funded childcare learning centers must follow all current Approaches to Learning |
| 49 | Standards (TN-ELDS). |
| 50 | All new childcare learning centers will be required to teach exclusively this curriculum, with a |
| 51 | checklist of milestones in their cognitive journey throughout PreK. This will ensure all children have |
| 52 | adequately met certain targets before they graduate to Kindergarten. These assessments will be |
| 53 | conducted with 2 methods: |
| 54 | Pre-planned questionnaires that are read aloud to the student, who is to respond with the correct |
| 55 | answer. If they do not comply or respond, behavioral action will be taken within TN law. |
| 56 | Informal assessment such as observations, conversations, and samples of a child’s work within |
| 57 | projects that are based on the TN-ELDS. |
| 58 | Moderators supplied by the TN government will survey and observe current teachers and students |
| 59 | within the childcare learning center to determine whether or not it demonstrates the TN-ELDS |
| 60 | program and provides an affluent education. |
| 61 | |
| 62 | Section V: Construction and Maintenance of Facilities |
| 63 | Childcare learning centers will be constructed to meet the current data statistic of 85 people per |
| 64 | center, not including teachers. |
| 65 | These will be distributed in eligible areas which are determined through census surveys. This will |
| 66 | calculate the population’s requirement of X number of childcare learning centers per 85 children |
| 67 | aged 4-5, within a government district. |
| 68 | In the first year of effective implementation, there will be 400 childcare learning centers built as a |
| 69 | standalone center, while the other 200 centers will be added sections to elementary schools. |
| 70 | In the following years, centers will be constructed based on data about the effectiveness of each |
| 71 | type of center in specific regions to maximize positive results. |
| 72 | Childcare learning centers will be built with updated technology and will be supplied with materials, |
| 73 | teachers, and transportation to and from the school. |
| 74 | Materials will be supplied by the TN Department of Education. |
| 75 | Teachers will be paid following our requirements, and will also receive benefits such as paid |
| 76 | parental, bereavement, military, and sick leave. They are also entitled to retirement and health |
| 77 | benefits through the RetireReadyTN and State Employee Wellness programs. |
| 78 | Transportation such as buses will be provided in extension through elementary schools. PreK buses |
| 79 | will load after elementary schools, within their 4.5-hour schedule. PreK students will also be |
| 80 | dismissed later to help with parents’ work schedules and allow for buses to return after dropping |
| 81 | off elementary students. Schools will also be exempt from bus transportation, as it is not |
| 82 | mandated by TN law if they are within walking distance of students’ homes. Handicapped students |
| 83 | will be provided with a suited bus for their needs and will have one large route to encompass the |
| 84 | smaller demographic. |
| 85 | Administrators through the state government will moderate and determine if standards are met. |
| 86 | These include the current requirements and the requirements in Section II. Due to new schools |
| 87 | being constructed, a larger staff team will be hired to combat the greater number of students |
| 88 | needing to be observed. |
| 89 | |
| 90 | |
| 91 | The total startup of the bill is 287.4 million USD, only 2% of the total Department of Education’s |
| 92 | annual budget of 15.07 billion USD. This will construct 600 more childcare learning center |
| 93 | facilities, costing approximately 479,000 USD each, near elementary schools to utilize their bonus |
| 94 | bus services. This total cost will cover the necessary materials, payment of teachers, |
| 95 | transportation for students, facility construction/renovation, and upkeep for the next year. |
| 96 | This includes teacher salaries and benefits, costing 204,000 USD per school. The total annual |
| 97 | upkeep for teachers will be 122.4 million USD, with a potential roundup of 150 million USD to |
| 98 | guarantee additional funding towards renovations or educational improvements deemed necessary |
| 99 | by the administrators. |
| 100 | This roundup will also account for the necessary payment of bus drivers to and from the childcare |
| 101 | learning centers. |
| 102 | For the following years, there will be two potential associated costs: |
| 103 | 329,000 USD for each school that was in use for the year before, covering the cost of replenishing |
| 104 | classroom resources, necessary payments such as electrical and water bills, and the payment of |
| 105 | teachers. |
| 106 | The cost of classroom resources has the potential to fluctuate, depending on the possibility of |
| 107 | teacher or family contribution. |
| 108 | 95.8 million USD will be allocated to creating 200 more school centers in areas that are deemed |
| 109 | requiring of these schools. |
| 110 | Following the first year of implementation, nearly 200 additional schools will be constructed where |
| 111 | they are most needed. This is determined by population growth, advocating for schools, and a |
| 112 | deficit of early education. In the end, 2,500 schools will be built to cover all government districts. |
| 113 | Any additional funding will be saved into future expansions of the bill such as more schools and to |
| 114 | compete with teacher demand. |
| 115 | |
| 116 | Section VII: Repealing Clause |
| 117 | ALL LAWS OR PARTS OF LAWS IN CONFLICT WITH THIS ARE HEREBY REPEALED |
| 118 | |
| 119 | Section VIII: Effective Date |
| 120 | This bill will take effect following the 2024 school year on June 1st, 2024; with construction being |
| 121 | finalized before the second semester to ensure all schools can be built and properly supplied, |
| 122 | students and parents can effectively transition into the school atmosphere, all teachers can be |
| 123 | trained and hired, bus routes can be redrawn to help transport students, materials can be |
| 124 | purchased, and funding can be drawn, with the public welfare requiring it. |
| 125 | |
| 126 |