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What’s Happening in Washington

What’s Happening in Washington. Helen Blank National Women’s Law Center May 2011. Funding for Early Learning Programs in FY 2011. ARRA provided an additional $2 billion additional for CCDBG and $2.1 billion for Head Start and Early Head Start for FY 2009 and FY 2010

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What’s Happening in Washington

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  1. What’s Happening in Washington Helen Blank National Women’s Law Center May 2011

  2. Funding for Early Learning Programs in FY 2011 • ARRA provided an additional $2 billion additional for CCDBG and $2.1 billion for Head Start and Early Head Start for FY 2009 and FY 2010 • FY 2011 final appropriations measure includes: • $340 million increase for Head Start • $100 million increase for child care including $284 million for quality and $104 million for infant/toddler set-asides • A 0.2 percent across-the-board cut that will be applied proportionately to all non-security discretionary programs

  3. Funding for FY 2011 (con’d) • A provision allowing a portion of the $700 million allocated to Race to the Top competitive education grants to states to improve their early care and education systems, similar to the Early Learning Challenge Fund • Administered collaboratively by the Department of Education and the Department of Human Services • To “increase the number and percentage of low-income children in each age group of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers who are enrolled in high-quality early learning programs” by offering incentives to states to “design and implement an integrated system of high-quality early learning programs and services” • Any assessments must conform to the recommendations of the National Research Council’s reports on early childhood, which have addressed the appropriate design and use of assessments for young children.

  4. FY 2012 President’s Budget Proposal • An increase of $1.3 billion for CCDBG • An increase of $865 million for Head Start • $350 million for an Early Learning Challenge Fund • An increase of $50 million for Part C

  5. House-Passed Budget • Two-thirds of cuts would come from programs for low- and moderate-income people • Block grants Medicaid • Privatizes Medicare • Slashes funding for discretionary programs below amount spent in FY 2008 and freezes it at that amount for 5 years • Saves $1.6 trillion over 10 years • Could result in about a $400 billion cut in low-income programs • Exempts “security spending” from discretionary caps • Block grants Food Stamps (SNAP) • Additional tax cuts for corporations and higher-income families, reducing their tax rates to 25% • Adds $1.5 trillion to federal debt through 2021

  6. Debt Ceiling/Global Spending Cap • A cap on total federal spending at 20.6% of GDP (Corker-McCaskill) • Backdoor way to achieve Ryan budget • Doesn’t require revenue increase • Leads to massive cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs including early learning

  7. Balanced Budget Amendments • Initial sponsors: Hatch, Lee, Cornyn, Kyl, McConnell, Toomey, Snowe, Risch, Rubio, DeMint, Paul, Vitter, Enzi • Outlays must not exceed revenues; outlays cannot exceed 18% of GDP (currently closer to 25%) • Revenue increases only with 2/3 vote of each chamber • Can waive cap with 2/3 vote in both chambers, or majority when there’s a declared war, or 60% when undeclared war

  8. Balanced Budget Amendments (con’d) • National Academy of Sciences called 21% cap extreme. • 21% cap would cause: • Social Security benefits 27% less than under current law in 2050 • Medicare and Medicaid cut 25% in 2025; over 40% in 2050

  9. Administration Budget Approach • Freezes domestic discretionary spending for five years • Additional savings in Defense budget • Further reduces health care spending by reducing the cost of health care itself • Reforms passed in health care law will reduce the deficit by $1 trillion • Some increases in taxes • Not renewing $1 trillion in tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires • Limiting itemized deductions for the wealthiest 2% of Americans and reduce the deficit by $320 billion over ten years • Reforming individual tax code • Reforming corporate tax code

  10. Budget Challenges – We Need to: • Protect moderate- and low-income people in budget and deficit reduction proposals by opposing cuts in or the elimination of effective services, while supporting expansions necessary to respond to growing need. • Support deficit reduction plans that include adequate and equitable additional revenues, and oppose the Bowles-Simpson deficit reduction framework of two-thirds spending cuts and only one-third revenue increases. The proportion of revenues in a deficit reduction plan can and should be increased substantially beyond the Bowles-Simpson proposal. Imposing deep cuts in services will cost jobs, inflict additional hardship on millions of Americans, and prevent a sustainable economic recovery. • Prevent multi-year appropriations caps that force harsh reductions in domestic/human needs services.

  11. Budget Challenges - We Need to (con’d): • Prevent damaging structural changes in essential programs. Examples of such changes include block-granting Medicaid or limiting Medicare by converting its benefits to fixed vouchers. Such proposals would make recessions deeper and cause ours to be more of a two-tiered health system in which only those who can afford it would benefit fully from advances in medical care. • Oppose rules and statutory charges that favor tax cuts over important domestic investments by not allowing an investment to be paid for by a revenue increase, while permitting new tax cuts to be adopted without any requirement that they be paid for at all. • Reject efforts to adopt a constitutional amendment to balance the federal budget.

  12. What Policies Are Driving Record Deficits? Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

  13. ESEA Early Childhood Priorities • MOU for Head Start and local school districts • Encourage school districts to collaborate on transitions with other early learning programs • Joint professional development for teachers • Professional development for principals and other administrators • Maintain use of Title I funds for early childhood • Collect data regarding use of Title I funds for early childhood • Allow funding for development of early childhood systems (“Supporting State Systems of Early Learning Act”)

  14. History of CCDBG • Enacted in 1990 • Two programs • Reauthorized in 1996 with creation of TANF Block Grant • Child Care funded two ways • In TANF, mandatory funding set for a five-year period • Discretionary funds set every year • Reauthorization stalled since 2001 • TANF reauthorized with child care funding in 2005

  15. CCDBG gives states ability to set eligibility, co-payments and rates, as well as standards and requires states use at least 4 percent of grant for quality Newer uses of CCDBG Quality Funds: Quality Rating & Improvement Systems, Professional Development Systems, drivers of Early Learning Standards The CCDBG Context

  16. The CCDBG Funding Context • Little increase in discretionary dollars for 8 years until ARRA; small mandatory increase of $1 billion over 5 years starting in 2006 through TANF reauthorization

  17. CCDBG Reauthorization Priorities • Choose key issues from An Agenda for Affordable, High-Quality Child Care • Focus on: • Health and Safety • Quality • Rates • Infants and Toddlers • Serving more children • Research to set stage for further improvements.

  18. CCDBG Reauthorization Process • 40 hours of initial training • Requiring 2 annual inspections, one announced and one unannounced • Encouraging rates to be set at 75th percentile • Infant and toddler specialists • Technical assistance for HHS on conducting a market rate survey • One-year eligibility redetermination period • A study on the cost of high-quality child care • Focus on QRIS • Workforce focus

  19. CCDBG Reauthorization Priorities • Timing for reauthorization unclear • Committees responsible for reauthorization of ESEA also for CCDBG and Head Start

  20. Unmet Need • Only one in six children eligible for federal child care assistance receives help • Only six states pay rates at the 75th percentile of current market rates (the federally recommended level) • Less than half of eligible preschoolers participate in Head Start • Only about 4 percent of infants and toddlers receive Early Head Start • Many states have licensing laws that do not adequately protect children in child care • State prekindergarten programs are part-day, part-year

  21. Contact Helen Blank Director of Leadership and Public Policy National Women’s Law Center hblank@nwlc.org For more information, visit: www.nwlc.org

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