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“In today’s economy, when having both parents in the workforce is an economic necessity for many families, we need affordable, high-quality child care more than ever. It’s not a nice-to-have — it’s a must-have. So it’s time we stop treating child care as a side issue, or as a women’s issue, and treat it like the national economic priority that it is for all of us.” – President Obama, State of the Union Address, January 20, 2015 • • • • • • • “… in a new economy that’s increasingly built on knowledge and innovation, a core element of this middle-class economics is how well we prepare our kids for the future.” – President Obama, Weekly Address, February 14, 2015 |
President Obama is getting more and more serious about investing in early care and education. Like the reports keep showing: if we want kids to succeed, we need to make sure they’re ready for kindergarten.
Earlier this year, the President submitted his budget proposal that includes HUGE increases to all early education, including infant and toddler care, Head Start and pre-K for 4-year-olds. In fact, the President wants to more than double our current investment. The trouble is, most in Congress right now want to lock in all of the cuts made during the recession. They keep proposing the same old trickle-down economics that rig the system for the ultra-rich. What do you think? Does this sound like they’re investing in the country’s future?
The president’s budget recommendation includes the elimination of the automatic “sequestration” cuts to early ed that got put in place a few years ago during a bad game of “chicken” in Congress. He also wants to double in ten years the number of infants and toddlers in low-income families receiving child care assistance, including care during non-traditional work hours.
He requests $1.5 billion more for Head Start and Early Head Start, including COLAs, longer days and full school years.
The President’s proposal also expands child care tax credits for families, more preschool development grants for states, increased access to preschool for 4-year-olds and more funding for before- and after-school programs.
Add your voice to the struggle for quality Early Education! |
This commitment to early education follows the President’s historic 2014 reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), the primary federal funding law governing child care for low-income families. This was the first CCDBG update in nearly two decades and includes some major improvements to significantly expand child care access, quality and safety. For example, it will ensure a minimum initial eligibility period of an uninterrupted 12 months of child care for parents, eliminating the disruption and chaos caused when a parent experiences job loss or other changes.
