As noted at the September meeting of the Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care, it’s “all hands on deck” to prepare the state’s application for a share of the $500 million Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge – announced by the Obama administration in May. Massachusetts is eligible for up to $50 million over four years. Applications are due October 19.

Last week, EEC Commissioner Sherri Killins briefed legislators and legislative staff at a Beacon Hill meeting sponsored by Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz (D-Boston) and Representative Alice Peisch (D-Wellesley), co-chairs of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Education, and Early Education for All, a campaign of Strategies for Children. EEA director Amy O’Leary, a member of the leadership team advising the department, also presented.

“I think Massachusetts is very well positioned to take advantage of this,” Peisch said in her opening remarks. “I certainly am a big promoter of high-quality early education…. In the long run, the state is going to step up its efforts to make it accessible to all the children who need it.”

The meeting was well attended by legislators and staff. Representatives Paul Brodeur (D-Melrose), Denise Garlick (D-Needham), David Sullivan (D-Fall River)  and David Vieira (R-East Falmouth) attended, along with Senators Patricia Jehlen (D-Somerville) and Senators James Eldridge (D-Acton). Jehlen and Sullivan serve as vice chairs of the Joint Committee on Education. Garlick and Vieira are members of the committee.  Also attending were staff from the offices of  House Speaker Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop), House Speaker Pro Tempore Patricia Haddad, House Majority Whip Charles Murphy (D-Burlington), House Minority Leader Bradley Jones (R-North Reading), House Second Assistant Majority Leader Kathi-Anne Reinstein (D-Revere), Senators Chang-Diaz, Cynthia Creem (D-Newton), Sal DiDomenico (D-Everett) and Karen Spilka (D-Ashland), and Representatives Geraldine Creedon (D-Brockton), Jeffrey Sanchez (D-Jamaica Plain), William Straus (D-Mattapoisett) and Alice Wolf (D-Cambridge). DiDomenico and Creedon serve on the education committee. In addition, staff members from the Joint Committee on Education and House Steering and Policy Committee attended the briefing.

“The Early Learning Challenge is about building a statewide system,” Commissioner Killins said. “This isn’t about a pilot. You don’t get points for just doing it in one place or just doing a pilot.”

(See EEC’s PowerPoint on the Early Learning Challenge grant proposal.)

“The message from [U.S. Education] Secretary [Arne] Duncan is this is about quality,” O’Leary said. “What do we have on the ground that’s ready to move?”