On the budget front there is good news and bad news today. The Early Learning Challenge Fund could become a reality this year, but Washington state’s governor proposed new cuts to early learning programs.

In Washington, D.C., the new Senate version of the omnibus federal spending bill contains $300 million to launch the Early Learning Challenge Fund, an initiative that resembles the Race to the Top because it is designed to spur innovation and progress in child care, preschool and pre-kindergarten, according to reports out of Washington, D.C.

In Washington state, meanwhile, Gov. Christine Gregoire unveiled the first version of her budget proposal for the next biennium today. One of the biggest cuts to early learning is a plan that would scale back the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP), which, like the federal Head Start program, provides state-funded preschool to eligible three- and four-year olds. According to the Children’s Alliance initial analysis, the governor’s proposed budget plan calls for cutting 1,324 three-year-olds from the program and adding 662 four-year-olds, saving $9 million.

The budget plan also would eliminate the Department of Early Learning’s Career and Wage Ladder program, which supports child care workers. There are no further major cutbacks to child care subsidies in this budget, but cuts could be moving on another track. (We should have more on this tomorrow.)

Last year, Gregoire proposed cutting all three-year-old children from ECEAP, but the idea died in the state Legislature. This year’s plan would still support three-year-old students but only in certain rural areas. In Washington, the governor must propose a balanced budget in December that does not rely on new revenue sources.

Back in Washington, D.C., there is better news on money for early learning.  The Senate spending bill contains a $1.8-billion increase for early learning – an $840-million boost for Head Start and Early Head Start, a $680 million-increase for the Child Care Development Block Grant and $300 million for the Early Learning Challenge Fund, according to Politics K-12 CLASP.

This is the latest turn in the tale of the Early Learning Challenge Fund. The Obama administration officially unveiled the plan in 2009. Eventually it wound up in the massive health care reform bill, only to be dropped at the last minute. Then the fund was in and then dropped once again in a bill, signed into law, which reforms federal student lending programs.

Now the fund is back again, and given the tight time frame Congress has to pass a bill that would fund the federal government for fiscal 2011, which ends Sept. 30, 2011, it has a shot of becoming law.

It is far from a done deal, however. The House already voted on its version of the spending bill, and from reports I’ve seen its plan doesn’t include money for the Early Learning Challenge Fund. It could be an interesting conference when the House and Senate get together to hammer out the final version.

Given the stormy outlook for the federal budget, Politics K-12 reports this may be the last legislative train the fund can catch for awhile.

…Many see (the funding bill) as the last, best hope of getting new federal investment in early-childhood programs for a long time.” – “Senate Proposes Money for Race to Top, i3, Early-Learning Fund.”