In the News
With high U.S. childcare costs, local voters fill funding gap
What convinces voters to raise taxes: child care
Earlier this year The Hechinger Report shared the story of increasing local and state driven initiatives focused on pre-K being observed across the country. They begin in New Orleans where a new city-funded program for low-income families called City Seats is helping families find much-needed child care. Read the full story here.
Big wins on ballot measures for local children’s funds
This year’s election results include several big wins on ballot measures for local children’s funds. The Children’s Funding Project rounded up these wins in their latest blog, including in Texas and Missouri, where voters approved Travis County Prop A and Platte County’s Children’s Services Fund both by wide margins. Click here to read the full story.
4 Ways Cities Can Provide Business and Financial Supports to the Early Childhood Workforce
The National League of Cities recently featured four strategies for cities to provide business and financial support to their local Early Childhood Workforce. One of the four strategies includes providing financial assistance for childcare business through grants, subsidies and tax incentives specifically designed to alleviate the economic pressures on the early childhood workforce. Click here to read all four and an example of how The City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska secured approval and budget allocation to directly subsidize the ongoing operational costs of local childcare businesses.
Laying the Groundwork for Strategic Public Financing Success in Austin, TX
The Children’s Funding Project recently shared a success story out of Austin, TX. The city is the first in the nation to hire a Children’s Funding Coordinator to help identify ways to increase funding and resources for young children through strategic public financing. Read on about how Austin’s Children’s Funding Coordinator worked with local council members and residents to determine that a local ballot measure was a good strategy to offer an opportunity to generate new public funding for infants, toddlers, and other age groups of children.
How Seattle is Creating Early Childhood Programs That Work for Children and Support Providers
The City of Seattle was recognized last week by the National League of Cities for making remarkable strides in early childhood education, driven by the dedicated efforts of its Department of Education and Early Learning (DEEL). The Seattle Preschool Program (SPP), which began in 2015, exemplifies this dedication. A collaboration between DEEL, the Seattle Public School District and various community partners, SPP offers subsidized high-quality, evidence-based preschool, with most Seattle families qualifying for free tuition. Read more about the city’s strategies to ensure that every child receives a high-quality early learning experience.
Ready by Five Early Childhood millage renewal passed with huge support
According to unofficial vote tallies as reported by the Kent County Clerk’s office, the Ready by Five’s no-tax increase renewal of .25 mills passed with 70,313 yes votes to 48,787 no votes.
“We are grateful to our residents and voters for the strong support of the early childhood millage and confident that Ready by Five will continue to ensure our children are healthy and ready for kindergarten,” said Jennifer Headley-Nordman, president of First Steps, which administers the Ready by Five millage for Kent County.
The Ready by Five millage has provided funding to 18 community-based organizations. The .25 mill, six-year renewal will generate about $8.8 million in its first year and be used to expand access to early childhood programming. According to Ready by Five, the cost to an owner of a home valued at $300,000 would be about $37.50 per year, or $3.13 per month.
Pre-K 4 SA announces new partnership to expand child care options for military families
Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA) and Pre-K 4 SA recently announced a new partnership to expand child care options for military families. Through the partnership, the city says JBSA and Pre-K 4 SA will work together to focus on expanding the network of Military Child Care in Your Neighborhood (MCCYN) providers to offer extended hours and weekend availability to meet the needs of military families. “By ensuring our service members’ children have priority access to high-quality early education, we’re not only investing in their future but also enhancing military readiness,” said JBSA Commander Brig. Gen. Russell D. Driggers.
In November 2020, 73 percent of San Antonio voters approved an eight-year renewal of a 2012 referendum to increase the local sales tax by one-eighth of a cent to fund Pre-K 4 SA, a voluntary, full-day pre-k program for four-year-old children from low and middle-income families. You can read more about it in our case study.
In search of funding for child care, 2 Colorado regions pursue special taxing districts
Colorado already has lots of special districts that levy taxes for things like fire protection, water sanitation, and libraries. Now, two regions are working to make this possible for early childhood programs. Special taxing districts for children’s services exist in Florida and Missouri and have been possible for five years in Colorado.
While cities and counties already had the ability to levy taxes for preschool or child care, special districts allow communities to take a regional approach to early childhood needs, which, depending on where families live and work, can quickly spill over the boundaries of a single jurisdiction. Click here to read the full story on how two regions are working to to help families find child care, provide sliding-scale child care subsidies, and help local providers improve quality.
How locally-funded child care benefits families: Parents say free day care ‘changed my life’
Parents say the free day care ‘changed my life,’ allowing workers at low-wage jobs to balance household budgets and start saving. Click here to read how several locally-funded child care programs are positively impacting families in New Orleans, Louisiana, Whatcom County, Washington, and Dallas, Texas.
The recent local initiatives are focused on younger children–infants and toddlers–more than ever before, said Diane Girouard, a senior state policy analyst with Child Care Aware, a nonprofit research and advocacy group. One reason: People saw the economic impact of a lack of child care during the pandemic, said Olivia Allen, a co-founder of the nonprofit Children’s Funding Project. “The value of child care and other parts of the care economy became abundantly clear to a lot of business leaders in a painful way,” Allen said.