U. S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius will visit a Child & Family Network Centers’ (CFNC) site in Alexandria, Va., at 9:10 a.m. on Friday, March 7. Duncan and Sebelius will visit a preschool classroom and hold a press conference to discuss President Obama’s 2015 budget proposal to invest in a continuum of services for children from birth through age 5, creating a system where every child enters kindergarten ready to learn and better positioned to succeed later in college and careers.
The president’s FY 2015 Budget includes the following significant investments for early learning at ED and HHS.
- Education
- Preschool for All: $75 billion in mandatory funding over 10 years in a state-federal partnership funded through a tobacco tax ($1.3 billion the first year)
- Preschool Development Grants: $500 million, an increase of $250 million over 2014 (plus another $250 million in the Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative for $750 million total)
- Part C/Early Intervention for infants and toddlers with disabilities or developmental delays: $3.3 million increase ($441.8 million total)
- Health and Human Services
- Head Start/Early Head Start: $270 million increase, of which $150 million would go to expand the Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships funded in 2014 at $500 million ($650 million total request bringing funding to $9.7 billion; plus another $800 million in the Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative for Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships)
- Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG): $57 million increase in discretionary funds and a $750 million increase in mandatory funding ($807 million total request bringing funding to $6.1 billion)
- Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program: $500 million in mandatory funding, $100 million increase over current authorization level ($15 billion request over 10 years funded through an increase in the tobacco tax)
The Child and Family Network Centers’ programs are designed to meet the needs of 3- and 4-year-old children at serious risk of school failure and their families, living at or below 185 percent of poverty in highly distressed neighborhoods. This center, one of 10 CFNC sites throughout Alexandria, has two bilingual classrooms of 17 children each funded through Virginia Preschool Initiative (VPI).