While Washington State has a nearly $3 billion budget deficit, policymakers delivered a decent early learning budget, with the final plan preserving funding for child care subsidies and making a relatively small cut in state-supported preschool, according to a new legislative analysis.

The early learning future did not always look so good. Policymakers, for example, were considering cuts to the Working Connections Child Care program, which would have left thousands of poor families without the key support.  The final budget will maintain state funding, according to an update from The Children’s Alliance.

In addition, there is no cut in the Wage and Career ladder initiative, which funds continuing education and training for child care workers, the Alliance reported.

When you add these budget decisions to already enacted changes that will improve child care subsidies , expand the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) in the coming years and new efforts to create a continuum of services and support for children from birth to age three and a plan for voluntary early learning it is turning into a good year in the state capitol for early education.

“We maintained funding in the short term, made commitments to serving at risk kids, streamlined the working connections subsidy program, and launched a major planning initiative to establish a voluntary pre-k program. All in all a great year for kids, despite the dire budget situation,” Joel Ryan, executive director of the Washington State Association of Head Start & ECEAP, wrote in an email interview.

The budget makes some cuts to early learning initiatives. The state’s ECEAP program will be trimmed by 29 slots, the legislative update said, not great news but it could have been a lot worse. The budget also will cut $212,000 from the Washington Child Care Resource and Referral Network, the Children’s Alliance reports.

We will dig deeper into budget and why early learning did OK in the coming days. We also will post a link to the Alliance’s great legislative summary when one is available.