Early Childhood and President Obama’s Budget
Hannah Matthews from CLASP summarizes how the President’s budget impacts early childhood.
- An $825 million increase for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), comprised of $325 million in discretionary funding and $500 million in mandatory funding (through approval of the Ways and Means and Finance Committees). Budget documents propose that $300 million of the discretionary funding be used for quality improvement grants to states. A portion of these funds would go to states in the form of formula grants and a portion would be for competitive grants.These funds would be in addition to the requirement for states to spend a minimum of 4 percent of CCDBG funds on quality activities.
- An $85 million increase for Head Start and Early Head Start to support the Office of Head Start’s designation renewal process and cost-of-living increases. According to the Administration, these funds will maintain the current number of children served.
- A $20 million increase for the IDEA Part C services for infants and toddlers.
- $850 million for Race to the Top, including some portion of funding to be used for the Early Learning Challenge.
- $100 million for the Promise Neighborhoods initiative.
- $5 million to support Paid Family Leave in states.
The budget also includes some challenges for child care and early education, including flat funding of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, of which some funds are used for early education, IDEA preschool grants, and 21st Century Community Schools.
