Where is preschool in the budget proposals?

Nine of 10 N.C. voters want state investment in child care this year, so where is it?

As EdNC recently reported, a new survey of voters in North Carolina found that a vast majority of them said taking action to ensure that more working families have access to affordable, quality child care should be an important priority for legislators this year.

But that’s not what’s happening in the General Assembly as members work their way through the budget process.

At the beginning of the session, advocates asked for $300 million to continue the pandemic-era stabilization grants that are keeping the state’s early childhood care and education industry afloat. The early childhood caucus requested that amount during the creation of the House and Senate budget proposals. Here’s what those proposals include now:

• Gov. Cooper included $500 million for stabilization grants in his budget request back in March.
• The Senate’s budget proposal included whatever amount is left in a specific fund from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). We’re working to confirm that amount, but it would be less than the fund’s original $215 million.
• The House’s budget proposal did not have any money for stabilization.

So where does that leave our state’s early childhood education system?

My colleague Liz wrote a great article explaining exactly that.

She also wrote about the findings of a nine-month listening tour conducted by Care and Learning (CandL), a coalition of organizations pushing for a more publicly funded system of early care and education. They asked parents and providers what they want from early care and education. Common themes were availability, affordability, and trust.

Those are characteristics that require investment, and as the 2022 NIEER State of Preschool Yearbook revealed this week, North Carolina isn’t sufficiently funding NC Pre-K to meet those goals — and NC Pre-K serves less than one in five 4-years-olds.

But enrollment in NC Pre-K is rebounding and the budget process is only beginning! So stay tuned with us to see what comes next.

Until next time,