Advocacy

The biggest development under this priority was a nearly $126 million dollar investment in the Working Connections Child Care program. There were two other notable gains under this priority. First is a $14.6 million dollar investment in the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP), which is the state’s pre-kindergarten program for 3- and 4-year-old children from low-income families.

Policies should enable schools to engage with community partners to ensure access to whole-child services, educational attainment, and economic mobility.

The rate at which high school graduates in Washington State enroll in a 4-year or 2-year college program after high school has remained stuck at about 60% for the last 15 years. So what’s a policy-maker to do to address our problem of lagging rates of postsecondary enrollment?

Bills proposing to reduce the required number of credits required for high school graduation, a new state grant program to support postsecondary pathways, and more.

With state revenues exceeding projections, and with more than $1 billion in federal COVID aid still left to allocate, there are a lot of opportunities to advocate for new cradle to career investments.