DC mayor reveals part of FY26 budget, some childcare programs fully funded
WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — On Thursday, Mayor Muriel Bowser revealed the first portion of her FY26 budget, which is already receiving approval from childcare advocates.
The mayor's office announced that the proposed budget will include fully funding the following programs: $19.5 million in local funds for the Pre-K Enhancement and Expansion Program (PKEEP), $70 million in local dollars for the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund, and $86 million for the DC Child Care Subsidy Program.
'We know that when we invest in our children and families, there are many benefits — for our children's learning and development, for our neighborhoods, and for keeping families in DC,' Bowser said in the press release.
'It's not a time to back off investing in the things that we know will make a difference in the long term,' DC Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kihn said in an interview following the announcement.
DC mayor announces significant freezes after Congress's $1.1 billion budget slash
According to the mayor's office, PKEEP 'supports pre-K seats for 3- and 4-year-olds outside of DC Public Schools and DC public charter schools.' The Pay Equity Fund helps offer competitive wages and healthcare to early educators. The DC Child Care Subsidy Program helps lower-income DC families pay for child care.
Martine Gordon, coalition director with the advocacy group Under 3 DC, said she is appreciative of the commitment.
'We're feeling very seen and very heard as a community,' she said.
Gordon said the dollars allocated may not expand the programs, but rather maintain their current levels. She said she will continue advocating for an expansion, but applauded the mayor.
'She clearly sees the importance of these programs for families to be able to work and stay in the District,' Gordon said of Bowser.
As DC works through a difficult budget period, Kihn said these programs are the types the Bowser administration does not want to cut.
'The foundation for any education is what occurs when you're three and four years old,' he said. 'That's why we continue to fund them.'
Bowser's full proposed FY26 budget has not yet been released, nor has Bowser said when it will be released.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
9 minutes ago
- Axios
Padilla episode triggers five-alarm fire for Democrats
Democrats spooked by President Trump's state-sanctioned shows of force have shifted into five-alarm fire mode, warning he's pushing American democracy to the brink. Why it matters: They're pointing to what happened yesterday to Alex Padilla, California's senior senator, as a crossing-the-Rubicon moment. Driving the news: The jarring scene of Padilla, a Democrat, being forcefully removed from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's press conference after interrupting it — and then being dragged to the ground and handcuffed — felt like kerosene on the nation's political fire. To Trump's most loyal allies, Padilla's actions were merely an exercise in political theater. Back in D.C., House Speaker Mike Johnson was among the Republicans blaming Padilla, saying that "at a minimum," the senator should be censured. To Democrats, the episode crystallized fears about Trump's willingness to crush dissent, and shatter democratic norms and institutions. "This is the stuff of dictatorships. It is actually happening," said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). A few Republicans were just as alarmed. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who's repeatedly proved her independent streak, told reporters the incident was "shocking at every level. It's not the America I know." Padilla wasn't arrested, but the fallout from the incident promises to endure as Congress continues to wrestle with Trump's giant tax and spending bill. Zoom in: To fully understand the alarm that's gripping Democrats over the Padilla incident, consider two factors: 1. It took place in a mostly Democratic city where Trump's immigration agents are using military-style tactics to conduct raids and make arrests in mostly Hispanic communities and workplaces. Padilla is one of the nation's highest-ranking Hispanic public officials, and is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee's immigration panel. 2. Trump's over-the-top-enforcement seems to be about more than immigration. When Padilla interrupted Noem during her press conference to try to ask a question, the DHS secretary had just said that her agents were in Los Angeles "to liberate this city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and this mayor have placed on this country."
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Chart: Hundreds of gigawatts of clean energy at risk with GOP bill
See more from Canary Media's "Chart of the week' column. Amid rising power bills and surging energy demand, Republicans in Congress are set to undermine the country's primary source of new electricity — clean energy. The 'Big Beautiful Bill' passed in May by House Republicans and now being considered by the Senate would rapidly phase out key clean-energy tax credits, casting uncertainty over more than 600 gigawatts' worth of solar, battery, and wind projects slated to come online in 2028 or later, according to new analysis from research firm Cleanview. To be fair, the 600-GW figure is based on what's currently in the interconnection queue, and a good number of those projects won't get built regardless of the fate of the tax credits. (Projects often drop out of the queue for all kinds of reasons.) But if the bill kneecaps even a fraction of what's anticipated, it will have serious consequences for the U.S. energy system. For context, the entirety of the U.S. had a generating capacity of around 1,200 gigawatts at the end of 2023. The current version of the legislation would rapidly phase out federal tax credits that encourage clean energy development. As it stands, developers would be eligible for the tax credit only if their projects begin construction within 60 days of the bill's passage and if they come online before the end of 2028. That puts the 318 GW worth of projects planned to be completed in 2029 and later at explicit risk of losing their tax-credit eligibility. It also jeopardizes 2028 projects that either can't break ground with just two months' notice or which might hit snags that push their completion into 2029. That doesn't necessarily mean those projects would be cancelled, but it would scramble their economics, which were calculated under an entirely different set of policy assumptions. It's near certain that some would fall through. Many more would be delayed as developers hash out new financial terms — read: higher power prices that will be passed onto consumers. A slowdown in clean energy construction is the exact opposite of what the moment demands. These days, when a new energy project is built in the U.S., more than nine times out of 10 it is a solar, battery, or wind installation. That's not an exaggeration. In 2024, solar, batteries, and wind made up 93% of new energy resources. The year before that, it was 94%. Meanwhile, construction of new large-scale fossil-gas power plants is constrained by turbine shortages that are unlikely to ease in the near term. At the same time, electricity demand is surging and expected to climb even higher in coming years as the development of AI sets off a race to construct power-hungry data centers. If congressional Republicans pass a bill that stifles solar, batteries, and wind, study after study predicts the same outcome: higher energy bills — and more planet-warming emissions.
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Ohio anti-hunger advocates urge U.S. Senators to reject SNAP changes
The Mid-Ohio Food Collective. (Photo by Nick Evans, Ohio Capital Journal.) Ohioans on the front-line fighting hunger are urging the state's U.S. Senators to change the budget reconciliation package passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill makes dramatic changes to the food stamps program, known as SNAP, placing a substantial new burden on states. It comes at a moment when food banks and pantries say they're stretched to the breaking point. 'We're the richest nation on earth,' Grace Church pastor and Mid-Ohio Food Collective Board Member Michael Young said Thursday. 'This issue of feeding people should not be this difficult or this hard,' he continued, '(There) should not be many decisions to make when we're talking about putting food on people's table — it is a moral obligation.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The congressional Republican spending plan — President Trump's 'big beautiful bill' — would make significant changes to how we pay for the country's primary food assistance program. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has always been fully funded by the federal government, with states pitching in to cover half of administrative costs. Ohio participants received $3.55 billion in benefits during the 2023 federal fiscal year. Now, Republicans in Congress want to shift some of that cost to states for the first time in the program's history. In the U.S. House, lawmakers proposed states pick up 15%-25% of the total. The U.S. Senate walked that back, but still wants many states to pitch in, tying it to how accurately a state determines eligibility and benefit amounts, called error rates. Under the U.S. Senate plan, those with error rates below 6% would pay nothing, while states with error rates above 10% would pay for 15% of their food assistance benefits. Ohio food banks are serving more people than ever, budget would maintain funding at 2019 levels According to the Food Research and Access Center, Ohio's 2023 error rate would put it in the bucket of states paying for 5% of their SNAP benefits. Back of the envelope math, that would put Ohio on the hook for about $178 million. In addition to covering a portion of benefits, the proposal asks states to cover three quarters of administrative costs and imposes more stringent work requirements. If the current state budget process offers any indication those figures are a nonstarter. During the last budget cycle Ohio lawmakers gave food banks an extra $7.5 million on top of the $24.5 million base appropriation they've received since 2019. But this year, lawmakers zeroed out that supplemental funding, arguing it was always meant to be a one-time thing. Food banks argued they're getting more traffic than ever, and argued at the very least, lawmakers should give them a $5 million increase to account for inflation. Lawmakers didn't budge. In Grove City on Thursday, representatives from Ohio's food assistance network warned the state simply can't absorb the SNAP reductions Congress is considering. Standing in front of wall of glass wall looking out on their warehouse, Mid-Ohio Food Collective President and CEO Matt Habash, bragged they have 'three football fields of storage' and serve people in need 'from Marysville clear to the Ohio River.' 'But as impressive as Mid-Ohio Food Bank is,' he said, 'It's never been our community's best our biggest weapon against hunger. That, my friends, is SNAP.' Habash argued the program is the 'first line of defense' against hunger and a 'lifeline' to low-income seniors, children, and people with disabilities. He warned pushing benefit costs onto states would 'end SNAP as we know it.' 'This cost shift would force impossible decisions by our state leaders to raise taxes or cut essential services all while hunger increases,' he said. 'These cuts will do the most harm to the most vulnerable neighbors.' 'The meals that go missing,' he added, 'will be far more than our hunger relief network could ever possibly provide.' Habash urged Ohioans to contact the state's Republican U.S. Sens. Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted. The Ohio Capital Journal contacted both senator's offices for comment about the SNAP plan. Neither responded. Jamie Trout, executive director of Eastside Community Ministry in Zanesville, heads up the biggest food pantry in Muskingum County. Over the last three years, she explained, they've seen visitors triple, while the cost of groceries has spiked. 'To try to wrap my mind around the amount of people that will be coming for our services if the SNAP benefits are cut,' she said, 'I just don't see how we would sustain that.' Ohio Association of Foodbanks Executive Director Joree Novotny added that SNAP benefits wind up helping the local economy as well as hungry families. Food assistance dollars get spent at local grocery stores and farmers markets. In economic downturns, that cash influx provides a backstop for some businesses. 'The state of Ohio cannot absorb hundreds of millions of dollars in new spending,' she said of the cost sharing plan. '(Ohio) would either have to increase taxes to raise revenue, cut other essential services, or risk losing billions of dollars every year in economic activity that supports Ohio retailers, agribusinesses and neighbors.' She called the plan 'unsustainable' and 'unrealistic,' and urged Ohio's congressional delegation to reject those provisions. 'A hungry child cannot learn, a hungry worker cannot earn, and a hungry senior is not healthy,' she said. Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Nick Evans on X or on Bluesky. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
