Federal Funding for Child Care & Early Education

The Administration’s proposed Budget for the Federal Fiscal year beginning soon has been introduced, but it already is being overshadowed by the President. He recently said, “We’re a big country, we have 50 states, we have all these other people, we’re fighting wars,” Mr. Trump said, “It’s not possible for us to take care of day care.” And in an effort to “cut red tape”, his Administrator for Children and Families is “preparing a bonfire of regulations” governing child care training, teacher-student ratios, and other quality and safety protections. [NY Times, 4/28/26]. The Budget itself proposes flat funding for Head Start.

Another article in the Times [4/15/2026] points out that “The federal government considers child care to be affordable if it costs less than 7 percent of a family’s income. Of the 5.1 million American families purchasing child care, one analysis estimates that more than 40 percent are paying unaffordable rates, with the ratios highest among poor families.”

That same article points out that “The industry is broken for the workers, too. The profession is one of the country’s lowest paying, with female workers earning a median of $11.54 per hour. That has made recruitment and retention difficult and has contributed to a shortage of day care spots nationwide.”

Finally, the article emphasizes the overall benefits of a well-supported national child care system:

• Enabling more mothers to work, which would generate tax revenue
• Improving school readiness for the future work force
• Making child care workers less reliant on public assistance (at the moment, nearly half depend on programs like Medicaid or food stamps)
• Aside from the economy, affordable child care is a boon to children themselves, because supporting them during their first three years is crucial to their development.

This miserable situation calls on all of us to act now.  We have many friends in both Parties in Congress who are working hard for us.  Even those who aren’t our friends have to recognize that child care needs more Federal Funding for America to be able to work.  Please tell your Representative and Senators just why they need now to give early childhood programs much more funding and to require the Government to maintain our quality and safety standards.