86% of survey respondents say legislators should prioritize investment in childcare.
by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
A majority of both Democrats and Republicans believe the General Assembly should help families access early childhood education, according to the results of a poll conducted this fall on behalf of the Virginia Promise Partnership.
VPP is a statewide coalition of parents, childcare providers and advocates to achieve the goal of ensuring all Virginia families have access to affordable, quality childcare by 2030.
The poll surveyed 1,307 likely general election voters in October and found that 86% percent of respondents—including 76% of Republicans and 98% of Democrats—believe it is important for the General Assembly to prioritize access to affordable early childhood education.
Two-thirds of respondents indicated that they would support an increase in state funding through the General Assembly to expand access to affordable childcare for low-income and other eligible families.
Virginia is poised to lose $300 million in temporary federal relief dollars that have been used to expand access to childcare. This extra funding will expire at the end of this fiscal year, June 30, and means that more than 35,600 children could lose access to childcare services, according to VPP.
This in turn would cause job disruption for more than 37,300 parents.
The temporary federal funds expanded the state’s Mixed Delivery Preschool Grant Program, which funds free, full-day, year-round high-quality childcare in private settings for families that meet income eligibility requirements, so that it was available to infants and toddlers as well as children aged 3 to 5.
Virginia’s only other state-funded childcare programs are the Virginia Preschool Initiative, which is available in public schools during the school year for children aged 3 to 5 and requires a local match; and the Child Care Subsidy Program, which is federally funded and requires a state match, a family contribution of up to $180 per child per month and is dependent on parent work status.
Together, these two programs served 59,539 children in fiscal year 2023.
Earlier this month, Gov. Glenn Youngkin proposed additional investments in childcare as part of his biennial budget for fiscal years 2025 and 2026.
The Building Blocks for Virginia Families initiative allocates over $440 million—including $185 million in new funding—each fiscal year to support quality early childhood care and education services for the most at-risk families.
VPP is asking the General Assembly to invest $275 million in fiscal year 2025 and $325 million in fiscal year 2026 to “maintain and support parent demand” for childcare and to enact legislation “to ensure and maximize sustainable, stable funding that is responsive to parent choice, including a predictable cost-of-quality funding formula that responds to growing parent demand and a non-reverting fund to safeguard and maximize childcare funds for distribution.”
There is a proven high return on investment in early childhood care and education. A September 2023 report from Vanderbilt University’s Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact study found that Virginia’s additional $309 million investment in childcare in fiscal year 2023 alone will yield $397.8 million in economic benefit from increased high school graduation.
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