How are Early Childhood Budgets Faring in the States? A Look at Pennsylvania

Around this time last year, we wrote a post on Pennsylvania’s FY 2009-2010 budget boost for early education: Despite slashing $500 million from overall state spending, the state managed to increase general education funding by $300 million.

This year, the news isn’t as rosy. After missing out on the two rounds of Race to the Top grants (Pennsylvania had high hopes for receiving a grant), and suffering reductions in Medicaid matching funds from the federal government, the state was left with a $282 million hole in the FY 2010-2011 budget that Congress passed last July.

Governor Ed Rendell decided to fill this hole by cutting 1.9 percent across the board—this includes shaving 1.9 percent from the education budget. Though a 1.9 percent cut isn’t catastrophic, it will obviously lead to reduced budgets for some early ed programs.

Here is a look at how last year’s budget for early ed compares to this year’s budget – both the enacted version and the one that resulted from the 2010-2011 budget freeze that Gov. Rendell put into place after learning of the $282 million shortfall

Pre-K Counts, Head Start Supplemental Assistance, and the Accountability Block Grant Program (which provides money to school districts for improving early education) all experienced small initial cuts in the enacted budget, which were slightly magnified by Gov. Rendell’s additional 1.9 percent across-the-board cuts. (Note, however, that the budget for Early Intervention grew by almost 5 percent. This increase reflects an ARRA IDEA grant that the state received to expand access to early intervention services.)

As it stands, the overall budget is still $70 million short: After cutting that 1.9 percent from the budget, which accounted for roughly $210 million of the $280 million shortfall, Gov. Rendell called on Pennsylvania’s General Assembly to enact a natural gas tax to bring in $70 million in revenue. The House in Pennsylvania has already passed a bill that would create the tax, and the Senate is expected to vote on it before the end of the year. It is unclear what will happen to the budget and to the state’s early childhood programs, if the bill does not pass.

Pennsylvania’s 2010 budget could be seen as a warning sign to the early childhood community on what may come as stimulus funds run dry and state budgets are increasingly strapped. The Pre-K Now Leadership Matters site provides updates by state, some of which have only recently finalized their budgets. What will happen in other states, particularly those without Pennsylvania’s reputation for investing in early education?