Access to child care and Head Start is vital to women's economic well-being and the ability of their children to succeed in school. The Bush administration’s proposed FY 2009 budget would continue the administration’s long-standing pattern of freezes or cuts to child care and Head Start. Under its proposed budget, 200,000 low-income children and their families would lose child care assistance, and 14,000 children would lose Head Start.

Call or e-mail your Senators and Representative and let them know that they must reject the President’s FY 2009 budget request for child care and Head Start and support more funding for these programs.  To call your members of Congress, please dial 1-888-460-0813 and ask to be connected.  Click here to find out who your members are.  

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I am writing to urge you to reject the President's FY 2009 budget request and to support a funding increase of $874 million for child care and a $1.072 billion for Head Start. These increases are necessary to allow these important programs to catch up on the funding lost over the past several years and to restore the assistance children and families need to succeed.

With no increase in funding proposed for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), the administration's own budget documents estimate that 200,000 low-income children and their families will lose child care assistance between FY 2007 and FY 2009. And since the small increase in funding proposed for Head Start is not even sufficient to cover inflation, and given a small cut in funding in the FY 2008 budget 14,000 fewer low-income infants, toddlers, and preschoolers will be able to enroll in this comprehensive program in FY 2009 than in FY 2007 .

Please make the children and families who depend on these programs in our state a top priority.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
March 03, 2008