We’re potentially having a pound foolish moment in Washington and need your help keeping our Governor on track with quality early learning for children. Washington has made significant progress in the past few years in early learning. Now is NOT the time to move backwards.
Tell the Governor today! Keep Washington’s early learning programs off the chopping block.
Take a moment now to forward this to all your friends and family now so they can contact the Governor too. The more people that the Governor hears from, the more likely she is to keep early learning programs off the chopping block. Every single voice matters. Truly.
Why are we worried about this right now? You may have seen it in the news: Washington State is facing a huge budget shortfall in the next two years. To prepare for this shortfall, the Governor just received a report from the Office of Financial Management, which rates the relative importance of the different things in the budget to help her (and the legislature) decide what to cut.
But there’s a big problem: The report is penny-wise and pound-foolish. Its recommendations could result in Early Learning Programs like child care subsidies for low income families, pre-school, home visiting and parent support being severely under-funded or completely cut out of the WA budget.
Governor Gregoire is writing her proposed budget right now, so hearing from you today is deeply important.
Hey, if times are tight, why not cut Early Learning Programs? Top 3 reasons:
· Cutting funds now will cause thousands of parents to lose their child care
· Cutting funds now is penny-wise and pound-foolish — it will cost more money in the long run if we cut funding now.
· Early Learning Programs pay off. For every $1 invested in early learning programs, we get a conservatively estimated $7 back when these children become adults. If, 20 years ago, we had invested in early learning, think about the money we would have now! If we don’t invest now, we may never reap these kinds of benefits for Washington State.
Continuing to prioritize early learning is one of the smartest investments we can make in Washington’s future. In these difficult economic times, supporting families by insuring access to high quality early learning is even more critical!
