Background:
Access to affordable childcare is a critical issue for many working families in Louisiana
- Quality childcare can be expensive, particularly for the youngest children, rivalling the cost of
college. - Because of that, about 57,000 children receive childcare assistance through various publicly funded early learning programs.
- But the need is far greater: the state estimates there are more than 116,000 additional children without access to affordable, quality childcare.
Louisiana Early Childhood Education (ECE) Fund created in 2017 to help serve more children
- Its purpose is to provide a dollar-for-dollar state match to local communities for their
investments in early childhood education seats. - The 2022-2023 fiscal year was the first year that local communities received state matching
dollars. The Legislature made a $40 million one-time contribution to the fund in 2023. - The Legislature has passed several dedicated funding streams to support the ECE Fund which are expected to generate just over $21 million annually over the next several years. The most recent fiscal-year revenue was just shy of $20 million.
- In the last couple of years, local communities have greatly expanded their efforts to raise money for early childhood education.
- According to the latest data, more than 1,800 additional children are being served through this funding mechanism, effectively doubling the value of the state’s investment for these students.
- However, because communities have been so successful in raising revenues for early childhood education, the local draw on the fund exceeds the dedicated revenues available to replenish it.
Conclusion
- The Early Childhood Care and Education Commission has determined that Louisiana must invest about $95 million per year over the next 10 years to meet the state’s early childhood education needs.
- Given the large cost, that funding amount will be difficult for the state to achieve on its own.
- Leveraging local community investment through the ECE Fund creates incentives for new
partnerships and effectively makes the state’s investment go twice as far. - Moreover, communities across Louisiana are increasingly recognizing the value and impact of
expanding access to early childhood education and are pursuing new ways to use the ECE Fund. - Because of this, Better Louisiana recommends that policy makers develop new funding options in 2026 to ensure the ECE Fund is sustainable and positioned to grow so that every dollar raised in local communities can be matched and more children can be served. Large one-time appropriations and new recurring revenues have been used to fund expansions over recent years.