Washington legislators will consider the early education budget today, when a House committee discusses Gov. Christine Gregoire’s proposal to cut $50 million from state’s child care subsidies program.

The proposal would remove 4,000 families from the program, known as Working Connections Child Care, according to advocates. These cuts would come at a particularly bad time, cutting subsidies for families struggling to work or find work as the economy and job market improve.

It also could affect Washington’s Race to the Top plan.

“Certainly a $50 million cut to Working Connections would be significant and painful to families working toward self-sufficiency, and would impact the QRIS portion of our Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge grant because we include tiered subsidy reimbursement as a key incentive for providers to increase quality,” Amy Blondin, manager of government and community relations for the Department of Early learning, wrote in an email.

The cut is not a done deal, however. The legislature will debate the budget this month, and it restored other proposed cuts to early learning in the last few years. The governor, who is required to propose a balanced budget, is also a big supporter of early education and would use money from a proposed tax increase to preserve child care subsidies, if it passes.

“Gov. Gregoire included Working Connections on her 'buy-back' list with the proposed temporary half-cent sales tax increase because she understands how hard this cut would hit families,” Blondin added.

Since the legislative session is scheduled to run only 60 days, the budget should come together quickly. Of course, a special session could always be called.

Head Start Parents More Involved? The federal Head Start program received good news last week when a report suggested that moms and dads of children enrolled in Head Start are more involved parents.

The researchers find that while being enrolled in Head Start increases the number of hours a child spends in childcare away from parents, parents of these students actually spend more hours investing more deeply in their children and continue to do so after leaving Head Start.

– “Study: Head Start Programs May Increase Parents' Involvement,” Inside School Research. 1/5/12.

Check it out.