A politician’s commitment sometimes is not measured in what he or she accomplishes, but instead how hard he or she tries.

This year, President Barack Obama is once again pushing for the creation of the Early Learning Challenge Fund. In his latest budget released today, the president asked for $350 million for the fund, which resembles the Education Department’s Race to the Top in its goal of spurring innovation in early education, Politics K-12 reports.

Now, the Early Learning Challenge Fund has appeared close to becoming a reality a couple of times in recent years, only to die at the last minute. It was in the sweeping health care reform act, but dropped in the final minutes of legislative action. Then, the fund was tucked into the omnibus spending bill, but that bill died at the end of last year.

With the current budget-cutting climate on Capitol Hill, it will be hard to find new money for the initiative. But, Obama keeps trying – the fact that it wound up in the health care bill and omnibus budget for awhile suggests the administration is fighting for it during critical stages of negotiations and that it has powerful supporters in Congress.

Since Obama keeps trying, there is still hope. Even in this period of budget deficits and spending cuts, there will be legislative vehicles the Early Learning Challenge Fund could hop to enactment.  It is likely a long shot, but President Obama’s commitment, coupled with the support of Senate Heath, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, means there is a shot.

There was other good news for early learning in Obama’s new budget.

The budget plan proposed an increase of $866 million for Head Start and Early Head Start, according to the First Five Years Fund. The increase would preserve the funding boost contained in the economic stimulus act, though there is concern about potential cuts to Head Start in the current fiscal year because Congress has not yet approved final spending amounts.

The Obama administration also asked for a $1.3 billion increase in the Child Care Development Block Grant, which would boost child care subsidies, according to the Washington State Association of Head Start and ECEAP.