The momentum that has led us here didn’t happen by accident. It happened because advocates like you showed up, wrote letters, made calls, and refused to let lawmakers forget that fair school funding is a constitutional mandate, not a bargaining chip.
Now, the honest news.
The final budget included only half of the early childhood education dollars that Governor Shapiro requested and the PA House passed.
I’ll be candid with you: we fought for more. The early childhood education system is a fundamental part of our country’s infrastructure, nurturing young minds while supporting the workforce that keeps our economy running. Millions of working Pennsylvanians are still caught in a child care crisis, and this small step is not the same as a solution.
What Else Didn’t Get Done?
Several bills you have fought for alongside us were not passed as part of the budget process: paid family and medical leave, reforms to the juvenile justice system, and lead poisoning testing. These aren’t side projects. They sit at the heart of our new strategic plan’s commitments.
What’s next?
This budget is why Children First is embarking on our new strategic plan, a roadmap to guide our work over the next five years. Hundreds of parents, partners, leaders, and advocates helped shape that plan, and their insights revealed a hard truth: the policies that once ensured children’s health, education, and stability are no longer keeping pace with the realities families face today. Where we have organized for years, like fair school funding, we are winning, year after year. Where the systems haven’t caught up to families’ realities, like child care, early learning, and family economic security, children are still waiting.
But unfinished is not the same as defeated.
Where You Come In
I stepped into this role knowing something that this budget confirmed: nothing on the list of budget wins below happened by itself. It happened because a trusted, nonpartisan, persistent community of advocates, including parents, grandparents, educators, providers, and neighbors, kept showing up with facts, research, and lived experiences that lawmakers could not ignore.
That’s how we’ll close the remaining $3.3 billion K-12 adequacy gap. That’s how we’ll win the early learning investments our youngest children deserve. And that’s how we’ll pass paid leave, juvenile justice reform, and lead testing.
Over the coming months, I’ll be sharing more about our new strategic plan and the specific campaigns where your voice will matter most. For now, thank you, both for this budget’s victories and for staying in the fight for everything still left to win.
