In June, Governor Brown signed the 2016-17 California state budget—and it’s a strong investment in young children and the adults who care for and educate them!
As the new Louisiana governor and Legislature sought to address severe budget deficits in a special legislative session in 2016, the long term sustainability of pre-k investments was anything but certain.
In Massachusetts, local communities are increasingly demanding state investment in high-quality early education. Between January and June, 13 communities developed strategic plans for preschool expansion, thanks to state-funded planning grants.
Advocates in Idaho continue working to encourage greater investments in young children, and are pleased to report several policy wins for young children and their families, both in this year’s legislative session and a special session in the spring of 2015.
Following a challenging budget process and politically charged impasse, Pennsylvania finally brought its fiscal 2015-16 budget to closure in March of this year, making it nine months overdue. This put state advocates, including Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children (PPC), in the unique position of having to simultaneously conduct advocacy work on the incomplete 2015-16 budget and ramp up efforts leading up to the June 30 deadline for the 2016-17 budget.
Thanks to lots of hard work by many advocates, legislators, and state administrators, Rhode Island is making progress in expanding and adopting policies to promote the success of young children and their families.
Building on several years of growing momentum in support of early childhood policies, Colorado state legislators and advocates continued the forward progress to build a high quality, early childhood system in the state.
