President Clinton’s child-care and early-childhood-education proposals for fiscal 2001 include the following requests:
- A $1 billion expansion of Head Start, which would bring the total budget for the federal preschool program to $6.3 billion annually.
- $3 billion over five years for a new Early Learning Fund.
- $1 billion for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which serves children after school and during the summer. The program is now funded at $400 million.
President Clinton delivering his State of the Union Address.
—Benjamin Tice Smith - An $817 million increase in the child-care and -development block grant, which would bring the total funding to more than $4 billion annually.
- $539 million over five years to implement a new tax credit for businesses that provide child-care services for their employees.
- $30 million for a new early-childhood professional-development initiative to help train child-care providers.
- A $10 million increase for a program to help college campuses provide child care for low-income parents who want to pursue higher education. The increase would bring funding for the program to a total of $15 million annually.
- Approximately $30 billion over 10 years to expand the child- and dependent-care tax credit. The credit would become refundable for low-income families. The maximum level of the credit would increase from 30 percent to 50 percent for families earning up to $60,000. Parents who stay at home with their children under age 1 could also take advantage of the credit.
