The biggest new federal investment in early learning in years could move closer to reality this week, when the House votes on a bill that would funnel $8 billion into child care, preschool and pre-k over the next 10 years.

Later this week, the House of Representatives is expected to debate a bill that would revamp direct college lending, but the big news is savings would be used to create an Early Learning Challenge Fund, an ambitious plan to improve the quality and availability of child care in this country.

The bill spends a lot of ink on quality, with money targeted to educating teachers, using evidence-based standards and creating rating systems. (Does this mean Washington state would get a healthy investment to expand its quality rating pilot project?)

The bill is also deliberately dedicated to closing the gap in access to quality child care.

Not less than 65 percent of the grant shall be used to implement quality initiatives that increase the number of disadvantaged children in high-quality early learning programs. - Summary of Early Learning Challenge Fund (H.R. 3221), National Women’s Law Center.

Washington state appears well-positioned to win some money, though it’s not clear whether it could get a Pathways grant, which initially enjoys a bigger portion of the funds and is designed for states with well established early learning systems, or a challenge grant, according to one local early ed watcher.

“I think there is more that we need to do,” said Leslie Dozono, early learning policy coordinator for the Seattle-based Children’s Alliance.

Still, our state already has one of the elements required for a state to receive priority, a demonstrated public-private partnership, aka Thrive by Five Washington.

A grassroots lobbying campaign is already building, with SOAR circulating an email that supporters can send to lawmakers.

Stay tuned for developments later this week.