Months before the state Senate proposed reshaping More at Four and Smart Start through budget cuts, the big buzz concerning the early childhood programs was about merging the two agencies.
The Senate lightning bolt hasn't killed the merger idea in the House, Lynn Bonner reports.
One of its architects, Rep. Ray Rapp, is holding a news conference Wednesday featuring Dr. Olson Huff, a pediatrician and big Smart Start champion.
Rapp, the primary sponsor of House Bill 539, proposes moving More at Four from the state Department of Public Instruction to the state Department of Health and Human Services. DHHS would work to merge More at Four with the N.C. Partnership for Children, which oversees Smart Start.
At least one local partnership director thinks it's a good move, but others agree with state education CEO Bill Harrison, that the state should study a merger first.
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Re: More-Smart merger alive in House
Yes, they can be seen as baby-sitting; but they also serve to absorb classroom space to make schools seem just that much more crowded. Nothing soaks up a bleeding heart more than crowded schools; and if it weren't for smart-fhart, where would illegal alien and anchor children get their early medical treatment?
Not funding this is not an option! (did that sound like a politician?)
Jim Black almost put these deserving issues at the forefront with his "Everybody has to pay my business before they can enter kindergarten" program.
Jim Black is suffering severely for his deeds. TAKE THAT! Jim Black, no new cars for you and a moral victory for voters to cherish while Fibrowatt dances across NC in it's contorted perspective that spreading disease and stench is "Less filling" - or does it "Taste great" - I forget which it is, but I know that if Fibrowatt's saying it: "It's Greeeat!"