The Passage of Pennsylvania’s 2025–2026 Budget and What Comes Next for Child Care

STATEMENT: Early Excellence Project on the Passage of Pennsylvania’s 2025–2026 Budget and What Comes Next for Child Care

Pittsburgh, PA

Pennsylvania’s 2025–2026 budget includes a $25 million investment for child care recruitment and retention bonuses. This funding acknowledges what families and providers have known for years: early educators are essential, and they deserve to be compensated for the work that keeps our communities moving.

At the Early Excellence Project, we welcome this investment, and we remain clear-eyed about what comes next.

Our recent blog, “When Government Funding Gaps Widen, Who Steps In to Keep Child Care Afloat,” highlighted a truth that every childcare provider in our network lives every day. One-time grants and stop-gap payments help in the moment. Yet without long-term, predictable funding, childcare programs continue to shoulder the burden of an unstable system, especially those serving Black, Brown, and low-income families.

This budget is a step in the right direction. It puts needed dollars into the pockets of early educators who have carried far too much on far too little. And it creates momentum for a future where recruitment and retention do not depend on temporary relief, but on a system that values, funds, and sustains early learning as the public good that it is.

As we celebrate this win for Pennsylvania’s childcare workforce, we remain focused on the work ahead. We will continue partnering with providers, elevating their voices, and advocating for policies that strengthen childcare infrastructure, stabilize the workforce, and expand access for families throughout Allegheny County.

The road to a thriving early learning ecosystem requires consistent investment, not episodic rescue. This budget keeps the conversation moving, and EEP will continue pushing for the long-term solutions our providers and families deserve.

DaVonna Shannon, Ph.D.

Executive Director

Early Excellence Project

Literacy Lessons for Little Learners: The Power of Words with Stacey’s Extraordinary Words by Stacey Abrams

At the Early Excellence Project, we believe in the power of stories to inspire children to find their voices and use them with confidence. Stacey’s Extraordinary Words by Stacey Abrams, with illustrations by Kitt Thomas, is a heartfelt picture book that shows young readers how words can empower, encourage, and create change.

This inspiring story follows Stacey, a girl who loves words and is chosen to compete in her school’s spelling bee. Along the way, she learns that winning isn’t just about spelling correctly, it’s about using words to speak up, share ideas, and make a difference.

In this post, we’ll explore literacy lessons to help your little learner engage with the book’s themes while building essential reading and comprehension skills.

Finding Strength in Words

The book encourages children to see words not only as tools for school but also as powerful ways to express themselves and their dreams.

Start with These Questions:

• What are some of your favorite words and why?

• How do words make you feel when someone encourages you?

• Why do you think Stacey wanted to win the spelling bee?

• How can words help us when things feel hard?

These questions help children connect to Stacey’s story and think about the role words play in their own lives.

Building Vocabulary Through Word Play

Stacey’s Extraordinary Words celebrates language and is a wonderful opportunity to explore new vocabulary.

Try These Vocabulary Activities:

• Word Hunt – As you read, write down new or exciting words. Practice saying them aloud together.

• Favorite Word Jar – Start a jar at home where your child can collect their favorite words from books, conversations, or everyday life.

• Word in Action – Pick a word from the book (like extraordinary or courage) and use it in a sentence about your day.

These activities encourage curiosity about language and strengthen word recognition.

Exploring Story Themes: Confidence and Perseverance

Stacey’s story is about more than spelling—it’s about believing in yourself and using your voice.

Discussion Questions:

• How did Stacey feel before the spelling bee?

• What helped her feel brave during the competition?

• Why are words powerful?

• How can we use words to help ourselves and others?

These conversations reinforce resilience, confidence, and empathy.

Creativity Through Art: My Extraordinary Word

Art activities help children connect personally to the story’s theme of loving words.

Activity: “My Extraordinary Word” Art Project

• Provide paper, crayons, or markers.

• Ask your child to choose one word that makes them feel strong, happy, or proud.

• Have them write the word in big letters and decorate it with colors, patterns, or drawings that show what it means to them.

This activity reminds children that words carry meaning and power.

Reflection: Using Our Words for Good

The story shows children that words can build confidence and also bring kindness and change to the world.

Reflection Questions:

• What is one kind word you can share with someone today?

• How do words make people feel included or encouraged?

• Why is it important to keep learning new words?

These reflections help children understand the responsibility and joy of using words well.

Celebrating the Joy of Language

Stacey’s Extraordinary Words by Stacey Abrams is more than just a story about a spelling bee, it’s a celebration of confidence, perseverance, and the power of language. By exploring the book with your child through questions, vocabulary play, and creative activities, you’re helping them grow as readers while also learning how to use words to inspire themselves and others.

We hope these literacy lessons encourage your little learner to treasure words and use them boldly. Stay tuned for our next Literacy Lessons for Little Learners feature, and as always, happy reading!

Child Care Stabilization: When Government Funding Gaps Widen, Who Steps in to Keep Child Care Afloat?

As the government shutdown reverberates across communities, one of the quieter, but deeply felt, impacts is on early child care. Providers are likely to face shortfalls in subsidy payments, delays in reimbursements, and greater uncertainty about contracts and grants. In times like this, the stability of families, children, and care providers is threatened.

Here’s what we are seeing, and doing, through our work in Pittsburgh’s East Side, in partnership with Duolingo Early Learners First.

During this period of federal pause, we can identify at least one consistent force: corporations who have made a lasting commitment to education.

• Duolingo has been a critical partner in supporting East Side child care providers, helping with bridging funds, capacity support, and logistical coordination.

  
  

• This kind of corporate‐community partnership is not just generous, it’s a signal: in fragile funding ecosystems, private actors often become de facto safety nets for public good.

  
  

• But corporate support is not a structural substitute, it’s a stabilizer. The deeper work remains building resilient, diversified systems of support for care.

Why Funding Diversification Matters for Child Care Providers

If one revenue stream falters (e.g. state or federal subsidy), child care businesses cannot shoulder the full burden. To survive, and to serve equitably, providers must cultivate multiple streams. Here are strategies we recommend in our business coaching work:

Sliding fee scales and tiered tuition models 

• Adjust pricing (within reason) so that some full-pay or partial-pay families help cross‐subsidize slots for lower-income families.

  
  

• Be explicit about mission and equity goals so community members understand trade-offs.

  
  

Local philanthropy and mission-based grants 

• Build relationships now with local foundations, corporate giving arms, and community donors. 

  
  

• Share your stories grounded in the lived experiences of children, families, teachers.

Membership / sponsorship models 

• Businesses, alumni, or community groups can “sponsor” a slot or classroom to ensure that slot remains open regardless of subsidy delays.

Reserve or stabilization funds 

• Even modest reserves (e.g. 5–10 % of monthly operating costs) can buy breathing room during funding lags. 

  
  

• Use thoughtful budgeting to build toward a multi-month buffer.

  
  

Collaborative networks and pooled purchasing 

• Providers banding together to share administrative services, bulk procurement, joint training, or centralized back‐office functions can lower costs and spread risk.

Why This Matters—Beyond Business Survival

• Children lose consistency. When a provider cuts back, delays opening, or closes entirely, children face disrupted routines, lost relationship time, and developmental risk.

  
  

• Families lose access. Especially working families whose schedules rely on dependable care, wages, job retention, and well-being are jeopardized.

  
  

• Teachers and caregivers suffer. Pay, employment stability, and morale all erode when funding is volatile.

  
  

• Equity gaps widen. Systems that already marginalize low-income, Black, Brown, and immigrant communities are hit hardest by cuts and delays.

  
  

Call to Action: What Can You Do?

(as a Reader, Funder, or Corporate Partner)

• If you represent a corporation or business: consider sponsoring a “stability grant” for child care in your community.

  
  

• If you’re a funder or foundation: invest in multi-year, flexible support (not just project grants).

  
  

• If you’re a policymaker or advocate: spotlight child care as infrastructure, stress the human cost of shutdowns, demand policy safeguards for payment continuity.

  
  

• If you’re a community member: voice support, advocate, donate locally, and hold public systems accountable.

Our partners and providers are not asking for charity, they’re asking for sustainable systems. The government shutdown reveals a harsh truth: when public systems flicker, children’s futures should not. We are proud to stand with Duolingo Early Learners First and East Side child care providers in this moment, to stabilize, to learn, to innovate. But long term, we must design a child care infrastructure that does not tremble at every fiscal crisis.

If you’d like to learn more, to partner, or to explore how revenue diversification strategies might work in your context, let’s talk.

— Dr. DaVonna Shannon, Executive Director, Early Excellence Project