Washington, DC (April 10, 2026)—In response to the Bowser Administration’s FY27 budget proposal that eliminates the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund and shortchanges the District’s Child Care Subsidy Program, the Under 3 DC Executive Committee issues the following statement:
“Mayor Bowser’s statement during her budget preview was disappointing at best. In addition to announcing that she is capping child care subsidies at 6,000 children ( 7,300 are currently enrolled), and eliminating pay equity for 4,000 early educators, she gave the rationale that she didn’t fully fund child care because she believes ‘parents want quality that can’t be found in the current child care system.’ Her perspective that ‘young children belong in real schools with real teachers’ illuminates why the District’s child care system has faced an uphill battle throughout her 12-year administration.
To eliminate the Pay Equity Fund ($60 million cut) and further squeeze an already tightened knot on the District’s Child Care Subsidy Program (underfunding by $25 million compared to expected FY26 spending) is cruel to District families doing their best to raise their kids in the city and make ends meet. The more than 4,000 early childhood educators who took District policymakers up on their promise of increased wages if they improved their education and professionalized the sector are almost back at square one in terms of their own economic stability. Child care business owners operating at the slimmest of margins will soon face hard financial decisions, and most importantly, the budget proposal will stunt young children’s growth as they lose their trusted teachers. The Bowser Administration’s proposed FY27 budget runs counter to everything Mayor Bowser said about her goal of keeping working families in the District of Columbia, especially given that we are in solid financial health and able to meet our obligations and priorities.
To see such a lack of oversight with more than $60 million in agency cost overruns and more than $95 million in overtime, while this administration touts its investments in education but decides to cut child care off at the knees, is nonsensical and insulting to a sector that prepares young children to begin their Pre-K-12 educations with the skills they need to thrive.”