President's Budget Boosts Funding for Early Learning Programs

February 1, 2010

In his FY2011 budget, President Barack Obama proposed increasing funding for critical early childhood programs. Some of the increased funds will help providers maintain services currently funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Here's how programs that support infants, toddlers, and preschoolers fared:

• Head Start/Early Head Start: An increase of $989 million over FY10 funding to continue to provide Head Start and Early Head Start services to the 64,000 additional children and families served through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
• Child Care: An increase of $1.6 billion for the Child Care and Development Fund in preparation for reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant. The funding increase will allow an additional 235,000 children to be served. Part of the block grant, $137 million, is targeted for improving the quality of infant-toddler care.
• Child Care Tax Credit: The proposed budget will nearly double the child care tax credit for middle-class families.
• Early Learning Challenge Fund: The president supports legislation that will establish the Early Learning Challenge Fund "to help states improve the quality of early childhood programs to help children enter school ready to succeed."
• Promise Neighborhoods: $210 million investment for an initiative that "integrates school reform with strong family supports and effective community services across an entire neighborhood."

Sign up for Action Alerts from the Ounce of Prevention Fund to learn about opportunities to contact Congress in support of proposed federal funding for quality early education programs.

Learn more about the budget:

• Department of Health and Human Services
• Department of Education
• Office of Management and Budget



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