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Some of the following resources were compiled for a Cantigny conference on Early Care and Education System Building: Maintaining Momentum in a Time of Fiscal Crisis, held in June 2003, sponsored by the Build Initiative and the McCormick Tribune Foundation.

Current budget Funding streams State funding analyses Financing strategies Financing models Making the economic case for early childhood investment Economic impact of child care industry Facilities loan funds

The Build Initiative partners with the Smart Start National Technical Assistance Center and the Alliance for Early Childhood Finance in its Learning Community caucus on financing. For up-to-date resources on financing, see www.earlychildhoodfinance.org.

Current budget
Leadership Matters: Governors’ Pre-K Proposals Fiscal Year 2006
http://www.preknow.org/documents/LeadershipReport.pdf
Twenty governors have proposed increased investments in their state’s prekindergarten programs for FY 06, as compared to just eleven governors in the previous year. This report from Pre-K Now highlights gubernatorial leadership in the national pre-k movement, as reflected in State of the State addresses and proposed budgets for the upcoming fiscal year.

The State Fiscal Crisis: Extent, Causes, and Responses (2003)
http://www.cbpp.org/4-24-03sfp.htm
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities summarizes the current state fiscal climate, showing that the crisis is primarily caused by declining revenue (not irresponsible spending) caused by the erosion of the state tax base in the changing U.S. economy. It presents a national overview of how bad the state deficits are, and what states can and are doing to close the gaps.

Weathering Connecticut’s "Perfect" Budget Storm (2003)
http://www.ctkidslink.org/index.html
Connecticut Voices for Children created a website that offers a full range of strategies to communicate the need for investment in early care and education in Connecticut during a budget crisis. The information includes details on how the budget got this bad, the implications of current legislative budget proposals, perspectives from different elected officials, and alternative proposals that support children and families.

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Funding streams
A Child Advocate’s Guide to Federal Early Care and Education Policy (2003)
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Voices for Children (formerly the National Association of Child Advocates) summarizes six federal programs for early care and education: Child Care Development Block Grant, Head Start, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Social Services Block Grant, Child and Adult Food Program, and Dependent Care Tax Credit.

Financing Universal Pre-Kindergarten: Possibilities and Technical Issues for States in Using Funds Under the Child Care and Development Fund and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Block Grant (2003)
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In recent years, states and localities have become increasingly interested in providing universal access to pre-Kindergarten (pre-K). Two principal federal funding streams available to states that are traditionally used for child care under certain conditions may also be used for such an initiative: the Child Care and Development Fund and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant. This report by Mark Greenberg and Rachel Schumacher summarizes what is clear and what is unclear about the extent to which each of the funding streams could be used in support of universal pre-K initiatives.

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State funding analyses
Knowing where the funding goes is the first step in understanding how the system works, and how it can be changed. The following websites show how some states are analyzing where the money goes.

Early Learning Left Out, Volume 2
http://www.voicesforamericaschildren.org/Template.cfm
?Section=CCandEE&CONTENTID=5420&TEMPLATE=/
ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm
This is the second study of public investments in young children as compared to school-aged and college-aged children and youth. The Child and Family Policy Center and Voices for America’s Children teamed with twelve states in the first round and nine states in the second round to study expenditures by child age. The state studies found that much less is invested in preschool children, and even less in infants and toddlers.

West Virginia Division of Criminal Justice Services
http://www.prevnet.org/fundingstudyindex
An analysis of state and federal funding streams supporting public services for children and families.

Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children
Download here
A 29-page matrix of state-funded programs including information on the change from the previous year.

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Financing strategies
Ballot Measures
February 3, 2006

Many states are using or considering ballot measures to advance early childhood policy and improve the quality, affordability, and availability of early childhood programs and services. This conference call focused on ballot measures and their impacts on shaping public policy. It also included a discussion of the common elements of successful ballot measures.
Download the audio recording of the call (12.6 megabytes)
Download the call summary

Support materials:
Power to the People: The Effectiveness of Ballot Measures in Advancing
EarlyFlorida’s Voluntary Universal Pre-Kindergarten Program Ballot Initiative
From Concept to Ballot and Florida’s Universal Pre-Kindergarten Program
Ballot Initiatives in Washington State that Include Early Childhood Education
Interrelated Initiatives and Interests:Building Upon Success and Failure
First Things First Initiative – Arizona

Success Stories: State Investment in Early Care and Education in Illinois, North Carolina and Rhode Island
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This report from Smart Start’s National Technical Assistance Center describes three states’ stories of increasing investments in early care and education services and discusses the factors common to their success. The Illinois case study was supported in part by the Build Initiative.

Missed Opportunities: The Possibilities and Challenges of Funding High Quality Preschool through Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act
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This paper from the Center for Law and Social Policy provides general background on the legislation behind Title I and gives an overview of the available data on the use of Title I funds for preschool. Examples of how some states and communities have used Title I funds for preschool programs are given.

Alliance on Early Childhood Finance
http://www.earlychildhoodfinance.org/
The Alliance on Early Childhood Finance is dedicated to seeking more rational financing of early care and education in America through inquiry, analysis and communication among early care and education policy activists. This website will serve as the basis to link participants with new resources, ideas, meetings and on-line discussions on a variety of topics related to early care and education finance. Visit frequently to access these resources and take advantage of the list serve, conference calls, and discussions that will be held around the country over the next year.

Child Care Financing Matrix (2003)
http://nccic.org/pubs/ccfinancingmatrix.html#1
Louise Stoney and Karen Edwards create a matrix of revenue sources generated by state and local governments, communities, corporations, foundations, and other types of partnerships. The matrix includes actual examples, potential uses, and dollars generated.

Finding the Funds: Opportunities for Early Care and Education (2003)
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Rick Brandon discusses the advantages and drawbacks of five potential ways to direct additional revenues for early care and education: modifications to existing ECE and K-12 programs, private contributions from employers and philanthropy, general revenue funds, dedicated taxes, and loans and revolving funds.

The Little Engine That Hasn’t: The Poor Performance of Employer Tax Credits for Child Care (2002)
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Twenty-eight states have enacted employer tax credits for child care, but the credits have been notably ineffective in encouraging employers to provide child care assistance to their employees. This is the key finding of this report by the National Women’s Law Center. The report examines employer tax credits in 20 states in which data are available. In 16 of the 20 states, five or fewer corporations claimed the tax credit. In five of the 16 states, no corporations claimed the credit.

Blending and Braiding Funding to Support Early Care and Education Initiatives (2003)
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This Finance Project strategy brief highlights the successes and lessons learned in blending early childhood funding streams. It presents financing strategies that state and local policy makers, community leaders, and program coordinators can employ to align, coordinate, and integrate discrete, categorical funding streams.

Learning Between Systems: Adapting Higher Education Financing Methods to Early Care and Education: Research Report (2001)
http://128.174.128.220/cgi-bin/nccic/viewitem.cgi?id=14166&index=0&results=14166
Theresa Vast examines the financial support strategies in higher education and their potential use in early care and education. The areas of inquiry were: (1) financial aid need analysis; (2) financial aid packaging and administration, including a model for community-based financial aid administration; (3) use of diverse forms of financial aid, including family loan programs; (4) use of diverse sources of revenue, focusing on the feasibility of using community early care and education endowment funds; and (5) approaches to institutional (program) support and pricing.

Looking into New Mirrors: Lessons for Early Childhood Finance and System-Building (1998)
http://128.174.128.220/cg-bin/
nccic/viewitem.cgi?id=3543&index=0&results=3543
Louise Stoney advocates for borrowing successful financing strategies pioneered in housing, higher education, health care and education finance for use in early childhood education.

Untapped Potential? How States Contract Directly with Providers to Shore Up Child Care Choices for Low-Income Families (2003)
Download the full report
Download the policy brief
States currently have the flexibility to contract directly with providers to make child care available to low-income families. According to this first national study of state child care contracting policies, states are using contracts to increase the supply of child care in certain high-need areas, to provide child care to special populations, and to improve the quality of child care program standards and services. Although nearly half the states use contracts to shore up child care supply for low income families, the full potential of contracting has not yet been tapped.

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Financing models
The Cost of Universal Access to Quality Preschool in Illinois (2003)
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The Institute for Women's Policy Research concludes that instituting high-quality preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds involves a substantial investment and a phase-in plan to reach preschool for all. This report details the estimated costs of Governor George Ryan’s universal preschool plan.

The Finance CIRCLE
http://www.financeproject.org/financecircle.htm
The Finance CIRCLE is a demonstration initiative to improve financing for early learning and after-school programs. Between 1999 and 2004, four communities– Seattle/King County, Greater Minneapolis, Greater Kansas City, and Fairfax County, VA – will test an innovative new financing approach that can improve program quality and make high-quality programs more available and affordable to families. Demonstration funds will be used to jumpstart community efforts to provide financial aid for families, and resources for programs and providers to support higher-quality services.

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Making the economic case for early childhood investment
Early Care and Education: Realizing a Collective Vision
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This report from the National Economic Development and Law Center (NEDLC) examines the early care and education impact model that it developed to serve as a catalyst for systemic change to increase investments and strengthen the formal early care and education industry. The first three sections identify key ingredients for change: clear policy agendas, effective messaging, and engagement from new partners. The last section suggests ways that state and national leaders can build on their individual momentum to create a national initiative.

Early Education for All: A Wise Investment
Download Executive Summary
Download Full Report
Legal Momentum’s Family Initiative and the MIT Workplace Center cosponsored a conference in December 2004 on "The Economic Impacts of Child Care and Early Education: Financing Solutions for the Future." Based on the conference presentations, Family Initiative produced a report, which pulled together scholarly research, economic development studies, and the experience of state-level initiatives to make the case for investing in early care and education as an economic driver.

Early Childhood Development: Economic Development with a High Public Return (2003)
http://www.minneapolisfed.org/pubs/fedgaz/03-03/earlychild.cfm
Art Rolnick & Rob Grunewald of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis make the case for early investment. This opinion article was published in the March 2003 edition of the fedgazette, the regional business and economic newspaper of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank.

Invest in the Very Young (2001)
Download here
In this summary paper, Nobel Laureate Dr. James Heckman explores the assumptions and foundations of current policies toward skill formation. He examines the conventional wisdom articulated by political leaders and draws on a body of recent scholarship that challenges many of the premises that govern popular policy discussions. He concludes that investments in early childhood development are much more efficient than programs that retrain adults who are displaced from their jobs.

Committee for Economic Development’s Early Education Project
http://www.ced.org/projects/prek.shtml
Through both policy analysis and strategic partnerships, CED is mobilizing the business community to foster systemic improvements in early childhood investments and to help identify and disseminate best practices. CED is also running an endorsement campaign seeking support from America's business community to help build public understanding about the economic and social need for early childhood education.

A Stitch in Time: Calculating the Cost of School Unreadiness (2002)
Download here - (19.6 MB)
Charlie Bruner presents information and approaches to make the case for investments in early childhood by focusing on the investment potential of early childhood services in school readiness and other desired results. It synthesizes the literature and evidence, and presents several alternative approaches that can be used to estimate the cost of school unreadiness. Finally, it provides guidance for developing a process within a state or community that can lead to better results.

Investing in Our Children: What We Know and Don’t Know About the Costs and Benefits of Early Childhood Interventions (1998)
http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR898/.
Lynn Karoly and Peter Greenwood assemble the evidence available on early childhood interventions to try to answer two questions of interest to policy-makers and the public: (1) Do early interventions targeted at disadvantaged children benefit participating children and their families? (2) Might government funds invested early in the lives of some children result in compensating decreases in government expenditures? The answer to both of these questions is a qualified yes.

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Economic impact of child care industry
Summary of Child Care Economic Impact Studies (2003)
Download here
This detailed matrix provides basic information on more than 20 economic impact studies (14 are California counties) including contact information, available resource materials, and links to copies of the full studies.

National Economic Development Law Center
http://www.nedlc.org/Programs/divisions_cyf_childcare_impact.htm
NEDLC is a leader in economic analyses of the early care and education industry. They have incubated a model that demonstrates the nexus between child care and economic development and provides child care advocates with empirical evidence on child care's contribution to the economy. NEDLC's goals are: (1) to replicate Child Care Economic Impact Reports (CCEIRs) in other key states; and (2) to use the CCEIR process to create systemic change in investment strategies and programs to grow and sustain the child care industry.

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Facilities loan funds
Building for the Future: A Guide to Facilities Loan Funds for Community-Based Child and Family Services (2000)
www.financeprojectinfo.org/Publications/facility.htm
In this Finance Project publication, Carl Sussman offers guidance to assess the feasibility and potential impact of a specialized lending program on the capital needs of those serving children and families. While not specifically focused on early care and education, many of the examples are child care facilities funds.

First Children's Finance
www.dcc-corner.com/fcf.html
The Development Corporation for Children, based in Minnesota, offers a facilities loan fund called First Children's Finance. Low-interest loans are available to family child care providers, as well as child care centers and early education programs, to create new child care spaces or improve existing ones. Through a federal grant, the loan fund is being expanded into other midwestern states.

Connecticut's Program for Financing Early Learning Facilities
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Landmark legislation in Connecticut in 1997 created a comprehensive program to finance both the operating and capital financing needs of school readiness and child care programs. This paper provides an overview of the capital financing aspects of the program and the successes that have been achieved in meeting the capital financing needs of child care providers.

National Children's Facilities Network
www.ncfn.org
The National Children's Facilities Network is a coalition of nonprofit financial and technical assistance intermediaries involved in planning, developing, and financing facilities for low-income child care and Head Start programs. This website contains links to case studies, state and national financing facilities, and other related resources.

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