Senate Bill Includes Increased Funds for Child Care and Head Start

RESULTS has spent most of 2011 working to protect funding for Head Start, Early Head Start, and the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG). These programs have proven successful time and again at helping vulnerable children receive the foundation they need to succeed in school and beyond. Nobel Prize-winning economist Professor James Heckman (University of Chicago) concluded that “investing in early learning for disadvantaged children is a strong long-term investment with a rate of return of 7-10 percent per annum through better outcomes in education, health, sociability, economic productivity and reduced crime.” See Prof. Heckman’s illustration of this ROI (Return on Investment) below:

Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Approves Bill with Some Funding Increases for Child Care and Head Start

On June 13 the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee approved their FY 2013 spending proposal. As a part of our Early Childhood Development Campaign: Smart Investments in the Early Years, RESULTS has pushed for increased investments in early childhood programs. As of now:

• Head Start serves less than 50 percent of eligible preschoolers
• Early Head Start serves 3.5 percent of all eligible families.
• The Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG) serves only one out of six eligible children.

The Senate proposal includes $8.039 billion, a $70 million increase, for Head Start and $2.4 billion, a $160 million increase, for CCDBG. While these levels fall short of our funding requests, it is a good sign that a bill with limited funding increases prioritized early childhood programs for increases. 

TAKE ACTION: Tailor our “Put Child Care on the Map” – and let’s get child care on the radar screens for policymakers (and on this map!) And need inspiration before you take action? Watch this: “Change the First Five Years and You Change Everything”.