Potts Family Foundation

June 9, 2011 – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Smart Start Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness, legislatively designated as the Oklahoma Early Childhood Advisory Council, will be accepting public comments on their annual Recommendations to the Governor which will be presented on August 18, 2011 at the Smart Start Oklahoma “Champions for Children” conference to be held at the Downtown Sheraton, 1 North Broadway, Oklahoma City, OK. Pre-conference comments will be accepted through August 12, 2011 at for review and consideration, but not read aloud at the conference. Those wishing to offer public comment will have the opportunity to sign in and be heard during the specified time on the day of the conference. For additional information regarding Smart Start Oklahoma, Early Childhood, or School Readiness please go to www.smartstartok.org. Past recommendatons have included: -The Governor designate a liaison from their office to the Early Childhood Advisory Council. -The Governor or Lt. Governor engage business leaders regarding the importance of Early Childhood. -The Governor will support the development of an Early Childhood unified data system. -The Governor support preparing students as early in life as possible. Recommend on Facebook share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tweet about it Print for later Bookmark in Browser Tell a friend

The First Five Years Fund pauses to tip its hat to our improbable hero of the day—Charlie Sheen—as he continues on his tour of spectacular self-combustion. That’s right, you heard me. Charlie Sheen. Thanks to the actor’s aforementioned spiral into infamy, Sheen inadvertently made it possible to showcase the importance of early learning in America’s foremost conversation pit: on a Jumbotron smack dab in New York City’s Times Square. The First Five Years Fund stepped out this month with its first 30-second, animated and 100 percent cool “Early Learning Matters” ad, underscoring the connection between quality early education for our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, and better health, education and economic outcomes. The ad will run every hour on the CBS Jumbotron, on 42nd street between 7th and 8th Avenues, through July 8. Expertly conceived and produced by ROI Ventures in Chicago, see the ad here, or a longer, two-minute version of it here. How exactly did this come to pass? As soon as CBS had about enough of the “Two and a Half Men” actor’s antics, his cancelled show then led to a slew of cancelled ads, and voila. Suddenly affordable ad space. We jumped. As if this news weren’t thrilling enough, the early learning cotillion continues tomorrow, when we expect the issue to become a bona fide and separately funded piece of federal education policy for the first time ever. We’ll be standing by, hoping to whip out another homage to everyone who worked hard to make this happen despite a dismal economic environment. All we know is that some or all (and our vote strongly backs the “all” option) of the $700 million designated for the Race to the Top in the FY11 appropriations bill will likely go toward competitive grants to states to build stronger and more coherent early learning systems, from birth to age five. As hotly anticipated in the early learning field as Kate Middleton’s dress designer was to the Royal Wedding-watching universe, the exact amount that states will be able to compete for has been a tightly held secret. Watch this spot Wednesday … Continue reading →