Budget Hurting State's Most Vulnerable Children

July 10, 2009

In the Ounce of Prevention Fund's network of home visiting programs, five programs have closed, other programs have laid off 50 percent of their staff, and at least 1,400 families have lost services. Thousands of additional families are at risk of losing home visiting programs funded by other sources. A proposed “50% budget” would also mean 50,000 young children would lose access to Preschool for All programs and 142,000 children would lose child care assistance.

Early childhood programs help low-income children enter kindergarten with the skills needed to help them succeed in school, college, their careers, and beyond. By stripping away these programs, the state is robbing vulnerable children of a fair chance at the education they need to break the cycle of poverty and narrow the academic achievement gap.

Illinois has been a national leader in offering early childhood programs that improve the school readiness of infants, toddlers and preschoolers at-risk of school failure. But progress in narrowing the achievement gap between at-risk young children and their more advantaged peers is threatened with unstable state funding.

Has your early childhood program been impacted by the budget cuts? Take our survey and help us paint the picture of how this budget crisis is impacting programs and families.

Visit our Advocacy Action Center often to learn what you can do to protect early childhood funding.



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