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While the final 2012-13 California state budget includes $130 million in cuts that negatively impact children’s early learning opportunities and takes $80 million out of First 5 California, it could have been much worse. Initially, early learning programs were slated to be cut by $450 million, which would have denied access to 80,000 children, including infants, toddlers and preschoolers.

Furthermore, the final budget did not end up shifting responsibility for early learning programs from the Department of Education to the Department of Social Services. This original proposal would have seriously jeopardized program quality, which we have fought hard to ensure in recent years. Nor did the final budget include the original proposal to eliminate Transitional Kindergarten for 40,000 young children who will now benefit from an educational boost prior to entering Kindergarten.

The Children’s Movement helped to minimize the budget cuts to early learning and to block the misguided proposals to restructure the system and to eliminate Transitional Kindergarten.

Going forward, we will work to restore funding for the cuts made and continue our overall effort to have policymaking better reflect the established returns on investments in early learning.