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.
In lean budget times, successful advocacy can often take the shape of avoiding deep cuts or even planned eliminations to vital programs. This year, early childhood advocates in the District of Columbia and Louisiana leveraged grassroots voices and strategic messaging to defend investments in child care programs.
Alliance allies at the Louisiana Policy Institute for Children (LPIC) mounted a successful campaign to protect social-emotional learning (SEL) standards in early education and K-12 schools after the Louisiana’s state school board proposed to remove them from the state’s early learning development standards.
The Alliance for Early Success has announced that five states have been selected for Child Care NEXT, an initiative to support in-state coalitions that are ready to mount long-term campaigns to achieve transformative change in their state’s child-care policies and funding.
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.
In a classic example of what we call “the Alliance Effect,” state advocates and national experts — connected by the Alliance for Early Success — make bigs gains for kids in Louisiana.
For the first time in a decade, more Louisiana working families will have crucial support in sending their children to a quality early care and education program thanks to a governor and legislative-supported budget that includes an $18.8 million increase for early ed programing and seats—and this was accomplished even though the state budget bill started the legislative process with $0 new dollars for early learning for children birth through age four.
When the National Governors Association learned the Louisiana governor’s office was interested in advancing early childhood education in the state, the Alliance convened state and national allies for a bipartisan full-court press.
The Louisiana Legislature finished its regular and three special sessions with both good and bad news for young children and their families.
Louisiana legislators renewed and grew their unique package of School Readiness Tax Credits, but couldn’t protect early care and education appropriations from across-the-board cuts.
When the Louisiana Department of Education sought to change the state’s prohibitive work 30-hour-per-week work requirement for a child care subsidy, Louisiana Policy Institute for Children quickly partnered with the Center for Law and Social Policy to make the case for a significant adjustment.
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