In DC and Louisiana, Advocates Work to Avoid Damaging Funding Cuts

By

Aaron Loewenberg

Much of early childhood advocacy consists of working with policymakers with the goal of funding a promising new program or securing additional funding for an existing program that has proven successful. In lean budget times, however, successful advocacy can often take the shape of avoiding deep cuts or even planned eliminations to vital programs that benefit children, families, and educators. This year, early childhood advocates in the District of Columbia and Louisiana leveraged grassroots voices and strategic messaging to defend investments in child care programs.

Recent actions taken by advocates in Washington, DC proved pivotal in avoiding the elimination of the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund (PEF). The Pay Equity Fund, launched in 2022, was designed to achieve pay parity between early childhood educators in licensed child care facilities and public school teachers in DC. It was also intended to improve staff recruitment and retention in the wake of the pandemic while addressing historical inequities and was funded via a DC Council-approved tax increase on the city's wealthiest residents.

Implementation of the PEF consists of two phases: the first phase provided direct supplemental payments to eligible educators in the amounts of $10,000 for assistant teachers and $14,000 for lead teachers. In phase two, which began in fiscal year 2024, funds flow directly to child care providers who participate in the program and agree to pay teachers a salary aligned with the new compensation scales. The compensation scales represent significant salary increases for many roles, with assistant teachers making between $43,000 and $54,000 and lead teachers making $54,000 to $75,000 depending on their education level.

According to the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, a total of $80 million was paid out to more than 4,000 early educators in 2022 and 2023. Evaluations of the PEF provide evidence of how important these payments have been to early educators, with many experiencing significant stress relief and improved financial stability due to the payments.

Despite these successes, the existence of the program was thrown into doubt earlier this year when Mayor Muriel Bowser proposed a budget that would eliminate the program in its entirety as part of an effort to address an anticipated budget shortfall. "When the news came out that it would be a total elimination of the program, it was devastating," says Adam Barragan-Smith, advocacy manager at Educare DC.

Members of the Under 3 DC coalition quickly settled on a strategy of centering the voices of teachers and parents as well as "flooding the zone" with publicity about the planned elimination. "Whenever a hearing was called, whenever a Council member had a public event, whenever they had community office hours, which many of them held, they heard from a teacher," says Barragan-Smith. The teachers were able to tell personal stories about the positive impact the PEF payments had on their lives, such as the ability to pay rent and no longer needing to work a second job.

The teachers' personal testimony combined with frequent media coverage about possible elimination of the PEF helped to pressure members of the Council to preserve funding for the program in the final budget. Rather than a complete elimination of the program, the final budget funded the PEF at $70 million per year, below the estimated $87 million cost of the program but enough to keep the vital program up and running.

A similar dynamic played out recently far from the nation's capital, in the state of Louisiana. Last year, state lawmakers approved $87 million in general revenue funds for early care and education programs, including for the state's Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) which provides financial assistance to low-income families so they can afford child care while parents are working or attending school.

The state's changing financial fortunes led to calls for cuts to these funds, however. The official budget deficit estimate for the next fiscal year ranges from about $339 million to $587 million. In April, state lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee approved a budget that would cut $24 million from CCAP, an amount large enough to mean about 2,000 children could lose their child care spots. Not only would those children lose their child care, but such a large cut could leave thousands of parents without the child care they need to be able to work.

After the cut was approved by the House Appropriations Committee, members of Ready Louisiana, a bipartisan statewide coalition, turned their attention to members of the Senate Finance Committee to make the case for preserving CCAP funding. According to Libbie Sonnier, executive director of the Louisiana Policy Institute for Children, coalition members argued that the state's already low rates of kindergarten readiness would be worsened if the CCAP cuts came to fruition. "The key messages were around kindergarten readiness and the number of children that would actually lose a child care spot if they did not put back the $24 million," says Sonnier.

Advocates also focused on an economic message with bipartisan appeal: the fact that CCAP funding leads to more adults able to consistently work and contribute to the state economy. "If you cut 2,000 seats then that's less Louisianans working, and we already have a workforce participation issue, so we can't afford to lose who we have in the workforce now," says Sonnier. The advocates were ultimately successful in restoring $15 million of the planned $24 million cut, saving the child care spots of an estimated 1,200 children.

The lessons of DC and Louisiana will be important to keep in mind over the next year due to the fact that many state budgets are expected to shrink. For fiscal year 2025, there is expected to be a six percent drop in total general fund spending among states compared to estimated levels in 2024. Given a challenging budget environment, it will be more important than ever for advocates to make the case that avoiding cuts to early childhood programs is good for parents, children, and the community as a whole.