WA CAN’T AFFORD TO CUT EARLY LEARNING FUNDING
Washington is facing a severe budget crisis this session, and funding for early learning programs is at risk. Governor Ferguson estimates that the state is facing a $15 billion deficit over the next four years. While the state is bracing for cuts across the board, we are particularly concerned about proposed cuts to early learning that will impact our youngest learners who are furthest from opportunity.
How is Washington doing on early learning?
Although we have high overall scores on standardized quality measures for our public preschool programs, most of our youngest learners are not enrolled in an early learning program at all. From 2018-2022, approximately 57% of 3- and 4-year-olds in Washington were not enrolled in early learning programs, such as preschool. Children whose household incomes are below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level were approximately 16.6% more likely to be disconnected from early learning resources than children in households with higher incomes.
Although there are many reasons why a child may not be enrolled in early learning, one of the biggest barriers for families is cost. The median cost for a baby to attend a child care center in Washington is more than $20,000 per year. In King County, more than half of families paying privately for a baby to attend child care center spend over $28,500 each year. That’s significantly more than any other education level, including college! For undergraduate residents, the University of Washington (Seattle campus) estimates tuition and fees at just less than $13,000 annually, while Eastern Washington University comes in at $9,384.
The cost of child care reflects the need for safe child-to-teacher ratios and rigorous facilities standards; it is uniquely important for government programs to help fund high-quality child care to simultaneously prioritize children’s education and providers’ financial sustainability. Reductions to early learning programming will exacerbate opportunity gaps, many of which are already reflected in inequitable kindergarten readiness outcomes.
What programs are likely to be impacted, and why does it matter?
Washington invests public funding to our public preschool program (the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program or ECEAP) and our state-administered subsidy (Working Connections Child Care or WCCC) to help ensure that every child in Washington has access to high-quality early learning.
Unfortunately, both of those programs are at risk of cuts this year.
Public Preschool: ECEAP
Right now, ECEAP does not have enough slots available to serve every child who already qualifies for their programs. There are a lot of connected factors that need to be addressed: more slots for children to enroll, better pay to recruit and retain teachers, and more safe spaces for kids to learn and play. The Fair Start for Kids Act directed the Legislature to fund an ECEAP “entitlement” this session, meaning that every eligible child would be guaranteed a slot if they wanted to enroll. Proposals in the House, Senate, and Governor’s budget all recommend pushing back this guarantee, and we anticipate that this Fair Start commitment will almost certainly be delayed.
Initial conversations during the legislative session pointed to a gradual increase in slots to move towards entitlement along with an 18% pay increase to help invest in the teachers who are integral to the expansion’s success. Unfortunately, more recent proposals do not include funding for any more slots and “sweep” funding from slots in which children are not currently enrolled. They also lower the level of rate increase for full-time teachers and keep pay for part-time slots stagnant.
Early ECEAP, which serves children from birth to age 3, is facing potential repeal. This program provides critical early learning and wraparound services to the most vulnerable children and families in our state, including a significant number of unhoused families. Repealing Early ECEAP would be a drastic reversal to progress in early learning that would simultaneously defund early ECEAP and remove it from state law entirely. We have seen proposals to repeal Early ECEAP from both the executive and legislative branches. Importantly, Senate Bill 5752, which originally included a provision to repeal this program, was amended yesterday to remove the repeal. The amended version passed in the Senate, and we hope to see more efforts to protect this important program and the families and children it serves.
Working Connections:
Working Connections Child Care was also meant to see increases in both provider rates and family eligibility this session. We are thankful to see efforts in most budget recommendations to prioritize increasing provider rates to the 85th percentile of the 2024 Market Rate Survey. For context, the Market Rate Survey (or MRS for short) is conducted every 3 years to determine how much families that pay privately for child care pay in each geographic region of Washington. Working Connections then takes the rate at which 85% of private pay families are paying less than or equal to that amount to set subsidy rates.
This is important to make sure that providers can afford to accept the subsidy while remaining financially above water, especially given how much has changed in three years. In 2021, the median cost for an infant to enroll in child care was $1,450 per month; initial reports from 2024 estimate the median monthly price has increased approximately 20% to $1,750.
Those costs also highlight the reason that family eligibility and their copay amounts are so important. This year, we anticipate that expansions that would allow families with incomes up to 75% of the State Median Income will be delayed because of budget challenges. Additionally, there are ongoing discussions about potential changes to copays, which families that receive Working Connections pay as a cost sharing measure.
How Early Learning Cuts and Delays Impact Families:
The standard measure for affordability is that a family should spend no more than 7% of their household income. The reality is that most families spend much more than that for their children’s early learning. The median family with an infant or toddler is spending at least 20% of their household income on child care; preschool care remains stubbornly high at 18% of a median family’s income. Of course, the median is only one metric. We know that families without access to two incomes and families who are further from economic opportunity are more likely to spend even more on their children’s early education.
What can you do to help?
We expect that there will be cuts to early learning this year, despite fierce advocacy across the state. That’s not because legislators and government staff disagree with the early learning goals they passed in 2021; it is genuinely a hard budget year. However, that does not justify the level of proposed cuts we are seeing; it is even more important to prioritize our youngest learners when the budget is tight.
You can help protect early learning programs by:
Highlighting early learning as a priority in the upcoming budget
Please encourage your legislators to prioritize our youngest learners as they consider and draft budget proposals.
Urging your representatives to pass new, progressive revenue
The budget has to be balanced, but the amount of revenue the state can expect is open to discussion. It’s important for everyone to contribute to our state’s community well-being, and progressive revenue is a necessary step to minimize cuts in early learning and other crucial programs that serve kids and families.
Stay in touch with the Children’s Alliance team to hear about specific early learning advocacy opportunities
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