The Alliance for Early Success is a 50-state resource for early-childhood advocates as they pursue the big, sustained impact that will ensure every child in every state, birth through age eight, has an equal chance to grow, learn, and succeed.
Alliance allies in West Virginia helped organize a broad coalition to defeat the repeal of the state’s income tax. TEAM for West Virginia Children utilized Alliance for Early Success Rapid Response to support advocacy and coalition-building efforts.
The New York legislature passed a new, progressive, annual budget in state revenue that will fully fund its school aid formula. Additionally, New York will allocate federal relief dollars to support significant policy changes in child care.
Louisiana celebrated big revenue wins during the 2021 legislative session for early care and education, including allocating sports betting revenue and specialty NBA Pelican license plate revenues to the Louisiana Early Childhood Education Fund. The Louisiana Policy Institute for Children and other partners also succeeded in other efforts to promote broad investment for Louisiana children and families.
Washington state passed the Fair Start for Kids Act due to the collaboration of a broad-based coalition led by our Allies at the Children’s Alliance. Allies in Washington state also seized the opportunity during the 2021 legislative session to think and act boldly and leverage federal relief dollars to improve early care and education policies and funding.
The Children’s Movement of Florida collaborated with statewide partners to advocate for an increase in quality and accountability to the state’s pre-k system. During the 2021 legislative session with bipartisan support, Florida passed the Early Learning and Early Grade Success bill.
Early childhood advocates in Arizona successfully blocked state funding for an online preschool program in 2020, and they are continuing to fight against additional attempts to fund these programs this year. While there is a huge need for expanded access to preschool in the state, advocates argue that online learning programs are developmentally inappropriate for young learners and a poor use of scarce resources.
