How to Prioritize Kids in Your Legislative Session: Lessons from the States

State and local governments raise trillions of dollars in taxes and direct trillions of dollars in expenditures every year. But too little of that goes to funding robust support systems for children. States from different regions and political contexts across the country are experimenting with ways to direct a larger portion of their budgets to early childhood programs and services. As you gear up for next year’s legislative session, we’ll explore five different types of bills that state advocates are using to direct more sustained funding to early childhood. For each type of bill we’ll discuss why that type of bill might be useful in your state’s context, which states have passed similar bills, where you can find examples of bill text, and how you can pursue similar bills in your own state.

We’ll hear stories of recent legislative successes directly from advocates from the following organizations:

-Louisiana Policy Institute for Children
-Let’s Grow Kids (Vermont)