Education

Early childhood programs are essential parts of every neighborhood. They prepare young children for success in school and life, support working parents, and improve family well-being. Physical spaces play an important role in child care and early learning; the quality of buildings and indoor and outdoor spaces profoundly impacts child development and directly influences program quality and the health and well-being of children and staff. Yet many child care programs and businesses struggle to piece together financing to support their infrastructure needs. Despite what is known about the importance of child care and early learning facilities, there is no dedicated federal funding to support their acquisition, construction, and renovation, and there are no dedicated resources for related technical assistance and business capacity building. Additionally, many child care providers that identify as small businesses lack access to business support tailored to meet their sector-specific needs. Fortunately, Congress can take decisive and swift action to ameliorate many of the facilities challenges facing the child care and early learning sector.

Access to high-quality public education sets the foundation for a healthy neighborhood and ensures that all people and places prosper. Today, approximately 8,000 public schools operate under charters in the United States, educating 3.8 million children. One of the major challenges for public charter schools is funding the costs of facilities. Most jurisdictions with charter laws do not provide a public funding stream for charter school facilities, meaning that charter schools must take significant portions of their operating budgets—usually around 20%—to put toward facilities costs. Fortunately, there are steps that the federal government can take to reduce barriers to educational choices for families and support world-class, competitive schools.