Early Education

Provide All Families Access to Quality Early Learning Programs Proven to Cut Crime. A wide body of research from some of our most esteemed academic institutions tells us that expanding these investments will significantly cut the numbers of kids who grow up to become criminals. We have made good progress in Illinois and these proposals will keep us moving forward.

2012 (FY13) Policy Recommendations:

A. Restore the FY 2012 cut of 5%, or $17 million, to the Early Childhood Block Grant (ECBG) This would return the block grant to $342 million and allow Preschool for All to serve more than 80,000 3- and 4-year olds. The ECBG in the Illinois State Board of Education is the funding stream for Preschool for All and a number of family strengthening programs through the Birth-to-Three set-aside portion of the block grant. In FY 10 and FY 12, cuts totaling 15% were made to the block grant, dramatically turning back the clock on the number of children served. Many programs have been forced to close their state preschool programs, and we are concerned that many that stayed open had to cut or eliminate components that we know are crucial for quality, including parent outreach coordinators. Further cuts will force even more programs to close their doors.

B. Maintain support for the child care assistance program  for working families. Our goals in supporting this are to stabilize child care access and quality for children of low-income working families. This will help to preserve parents’ choice of a variety of quality care settings for their youngsters – both home-based and center-based care.