Invest in Quality Early Education Funding in the 2016-2017 Budget
I strongly urge you to update and restore funding to the state’s early learning and care system. The Governor’s budget proposals in January and May does little to support working families and the child care/early education field in general. While we understand and respect the Governor’s proposal to aggressively save for the next recession, if we aren’t able to adequately reimburse providers, provide relief for parents who need child care in order to work or obtain job training, and demand higher quality standards of providers with no support to them, we risk further exacerbating the ability for parents to obtain child care in order for them to work or attend job training programs. With all the research on the value of investing early in a child’s life and the economic return on investment for every dollar spent in child development as early as possible, and the value the child care industry adds to each local economy, it doesn’t make short or long term sense not to restore and build existing programs when resources are available. The May Revise continues to over-appropriate $2 billion into the State’s Rainy Day fund, when those funds can be put to work through investing in the people who need it now while also benefiting our state’s longer term future. I appreciate the Governor’s desire to make improvements to our early learning and care system with his proposals to restructure, however, we continue to believe we cannot and should not overhaul our early learning and care system in a few short weeks of the budget season. We welcome the opportunity to have this important conversation through a robust, transparent, and public process that allows time to weigh these significant policy changes and resolve unintended consequences of the current proposal. At the end of the day, the Administration and the Legislature should make sure that this new approach will “do no harm” to families, their children, providers, education agencies and others in the community. We can have that conversation together with the Administration in the coming year. I believe supporting investments aligned with the Legislative Women’s Caucus for a down payment of $800 million to stabilize the system and move toward ensuring that all working families have access to quality, affordable early care and educational opportunities, addresses both the needs of families and begins to address some important changes that are needed to repair the child care/early education system. Specifically, I support: 1. Increase reimbursement rates so that early care and education providers can maintain current services, and take up expansion contracts, thereby ensuring low-income families have continued access to affordable and accessible child care and early education. 2. Expand access to quality early learning for low-income young children and their families through increased slots and any funds that support family friendly policies such as the 12-month eligibility and reduced administrative burden for families. 3. Continue to focus on supporting providers to offer quality regardless of setting by supporting the professional development of the workforce. 4. Build the infrastructure to ensure a system that works efficiently for families and providers. Early care and education is critical to the current and long-term economic and educational viability of our state. In addition to providing critical support to working families, high-quality early learning programs have proved to be effective in significantly narrowing the readiness gap, reducing the high school dropout rate, and leading to savings from lower costs related to special education, public assistance, and crime. We respectfully ask you to prioritize our youngest children and their families in this year’s state budget and urge your visionary leadership in addressing the long-term challenges facing the early learning system. Sincerely,
Sign with Facebook
Or sign with email
First & Last Name
Email
please leave blank
Address
City
Zip