New chair of county Coalition board provides details about what organization does and state law governing its funding
On a split vote this week, the Sarasota County commissioners agreed to provide a $300,000 grant to the Early Learning Coalition of Sarasota County to support early childhood education programs.
Commissioner Joe Neunder made the motion, which Commissioner Mark Smith seconded.
Commissioner Ron Cutsinger joined them in support of the organization, while Chair Michael Moran and Commissioner Neil Rainford voted “No,” as they did earlier this year after a discussion of county funding for human and behavioral health services for the 2025 fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1. County Administrator Jonathan Lewis told the board members that he believed the $300,000 still was available in a pool of funds that staff had set aside for those services.
Prior to the vote, Kevin Cooper of Sarasota, the new chair of the Early Learning Coalition of Sarasota County, provided details about the organization and its funding mechanisms.
During the board’s regular meeting on Oct. 8, which was cut short because of the approach of Hurricane Milton, Neunder asked that his colleagues engage in a new discussion about the Coalition’s funding request for the 2025 fiscal year. He noted that he had had the opportunity to talk with Cooper, who recently had been appointed to the Coalition board by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Although Cooper offered some comments during the Open to the Public period at the start of the commission’s regular meeting on Oct. 22, Commissioner Smith asked that Cooper be allowed to provide more details before the board vote that day.
Smith also reminded his colleagues that he represents them on the Early Learning Coalition board.
“To me,” Smith said, “early education is so extremely important. You only get one shot when you’re a parent and you’re raising these little guys and gals.”
He pointed out that the Coalition “focuses on … working families that oftentimes don’t have the money to put [their children] in daycare” or another type of learning environment before the youngsters start school.
After Cooper came to the podium in the Commission Chambers of the R.L. Anderson Administration Center in Venice, Commissioner Neil Rainford, who had voted against the Coalition funding, said it was his understanding that a nonprofit organization could provide the necessary funds to enable the Coalition to draw down matching funds from the state.
“I think [the Coalition is] probably doing tremendous work,” Rainford continued, “but where I have angst with it” is with local tax money being sought to support that work. “That doesn’t necessarily make logical sense,” Rainford told Cooper.
“It took me a while to get my head around it,” Cooper replied.
The School Readiness Program in Florida, Cooper explained, is funded by the federal government, though the state passes the money down to the early learning coalitions. He noted that each of Florida’s 67 counties is served by a coalition. (This is the state link to those organizations.)
The state Department of Education has a Division of Early Learning, Cooper pointed out.
The federal funding, he continued, “is largely insufficient” to meet all of the coalitions’ needs. The coalitions serve families living in economic distress, Cooper said — those making up to 150% of the federal poverty level, which is $31,400 for a family of four and $20,000 for a single parent with one child.
Yet, he said, the coalitions also serve families with children at risk of abandonment and children who have been abused, along with youngsters being reared by single parents who have been victims of domestic violence.
“The state wants to incentivize local governments to partner with the state from an additive perspective,” Cooper continued. The more funding the coalitions receive from local governments, to supplement the state money they get and ensure they can draw down the state match, the more families they can serve, he added, including families making slightly more than 150% of the federal poverty level.
While the coalitions are not prohibited from fundraising, Cooper said, such activities are “very prohibitive,” as none of the state money legally can be used to support fundraising efforts.
Further, “Unlike a lot of independent nonprofits,” he pointed out, “We don’t have a chief development officer.”
Cooper also explained that all of the coalition board members statewide are treated as public officials, and the coalition employees are “largely treated” like state employees.
What about community foundations’ support?
When Rainford asked whether the Early Learning Coalition leaders had asked community-based nonprofits in Sarasota County to provide the match needed to obtain the state funds, Cooper told him, “They’re aware of the situation.” However, Cooper stressed, he did not feel comfortable speaking on behalf of any of the foundations.
“We’ve tried” to get answers from the foundations, Rainford responded.
Then Cooper talked about the fact that county citizens long have supported a special tax imposed by the Sarasota County School District to raise funds to enhance educational opportunities for local students. “I don’t think this community shies away at all from early childhood education,” Cooper continued. County residents do experience “a lot of angst,” he added, when U.S. students demonstrate lower educational achievement levels than students in foreign countries, especially. “We decry that” situation, he said.
“Third-grade reading is one of the most important measures you get in term of future success” as children grow up, Cooper pointed out. When children entering kindergarten are “wildly unprepared” to learn, they tend to have lower scores on the third-grade reading tests.
“The [Coalition’s] mission is not the issue,” Chair Moran told Cooper. “The issue is who’s supposed to be paying for it. That’s always been the undertone of this.”
In past commission discussions, Moran continued, the question was raised about why the Sarasota County School District does not provide the funds to the county’s Early Learning Coalition. He had been told, Moran added, that the School Board members “refused to pay for it,” though he acknowledged that he “could stand corrected.”
To his knowledge, Cooper said, no school board in Florida provides the local money for the coalitions. He added that he believes the way the funding mechanism is laid out in state law, an act of the Legislature would be necessary for the school boards to do so.
Commission discussion also had focused on why the federal government does not provide sufficient funding for the coalitions, Moran said, along with the fact that the state refuses to subsidize the federal money at the necessary level for the coalitions to provide the service that is their mission.
Akin to Rainford’s questioning, Moran asked Cooper whether the community foundations had refused to provide the money for the Early Learning Coalition to receive the state matching funds.
“I don’t want to dodge the question,” Cooper began, but he indicated that such discussions had taken place prior to the governor’s appointment of him to serve on the Coalition board.
Nonetheless, Cooper added, “We have had conversations and continue to have conversations with local and private foundations.”
He also pointed out, “I would say we do not have a particular preference as to where the funds come from.”
Cooper then reiterated his earlier remark that the more money the Early Learning Coalition receives, the more families it can serve, including those who are, for example, making annual incomes at 170% of the federal poverty rate.
“This board and future boards need good information,” Moran told Cooper — “an honest dialogue” in regard to who “is stepping up to pay [the local money].”
Moran asked whether the Community Foundation of Sarasota County was asked to provide the local money when Cooper was serving on its board.
“That was years ago,” probably a decade ago, Cooper responded, adding that he was not certain whether such a request was made.
He did note that the leadership, board members and priorities of the Community Foundation change from time to time.
“I think the questions that you’re asking are valid,” Cooper told Moran, in regard to how county taxpayer money best can be used, to ensure the greatest return on the investment. At one time, he noted, he served on the county’s Human Services Advisory Council (HSAC). The members did spend a lot of time vetting applications for county financial support, he pointed out.
“I’m doing everything in my power to get the gray area out of this conversation today,” Moran said. “The community foundations or the private foundations could fund this tomorrow.”
“Anybody could fund it tomorrow,” Cooper responded, referring to the Coalition’s need for local financial support.
Encouragement for ‘on-boarding’ educational efforts
During his remarks, Commissioner Neunder encouraged Cooper to lead the Coalition board members in providing greater education for the public about the work of the Early Learning Coalition and its funding mechanisms.
Neunder also pointed out that after new county commissioners are sworn in, county staff engages them in an array of opportunities to learn how county departments operate. He referred to that as the “on-boarding process.”
Likewise, Neunder suggested, commissioners who represent their colleagues on boards of organizations should take opportunities to provide information to their fellow commissioners about what those organizations do in the community. “I think there is tremendous value,” he added, in understanding better how other boards function.
Further, Neunder talked about a potential “broader conversation down the road” about whether the Early Learning Coalition should have to apply for county funding each year through the Human Services Advisory Council vetting process, given Cooper’s explanation about the Coalition as part of the Florida Department of Education.