Maggie Stevens, with Early Ed Watch, informs us on January 19, 2010 that the question is arising again, as it did before the ARRA fund release, “What will happen to state and federal budgets for programs that serve children when they run out?” Panelists discussed this question last Thursday at the Urban Institute in Washington D.C.  These panelists gathered to discuss the Kids’ Share report.

In the third annual Kids’ Share analysis report, some interesting information was shared:

• ·     From 1960 to the present, outlays on children have increased in dollars and as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product. However, children are receiving a smaller share of the overall domestic federal budget.
• ·      In 2008, the largest federal spending programs for children were Medicaid, food and nutrition programs, and TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families).  These programs plus child tax credit, SNAP, and Medicaid had unusually high 2008 expenditures..
• ·    State expenditures on children’s programs are not distributed evenly across all ages of childhood.
• ·     As of 2004, states and localities accounted for 68% of spending on children birth to 18.  But for very young children, birth to age 2, more than three quarters (77%) of spending comes from the federal government.

The alarming news is that if “current policies remain the same, spending on children as a percent of GDP will decrease over the coming decade while non-child portions of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will increase by an estimated 2.3 percentage points."  That increase alone, the report says, is larger than the entire projected 2010 federal budget for spending on children.

Good news for early childhood was announced in a report released by the Pew Center on Thursday, October 22, 2009. This annual non-partisan report, “Votes Count: Legislative Action on Pre-K Fiscal Year 2010,” evaluated how states are planning state dollars for prekindergarten. We learn that Florida, Maine, Maryland, and Oregon have used ARRA funding to bolster Pre-K programs.

Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia increased or are projected to increase their Pre-K dollars by more than $187 million. Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia are going to see increases in existing programs by nearly $130 million. Two states, Alaska and Rhode Island, which previously had no state Pre-K programs, approved start up pilots. Nine states are expecting increases via the school funding formula. Delaware, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, and Pennsylvania maintained their 2009 levels.

Sadly, ten states are decreasing funding. They are Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Washington. At the time the report went to print, Arizona had not finalized their Pre-K budget.