Mayor Rahm Emanuel, CPS CEO Dr. Janice K. Jackson and DFSS Commissioner Lisa Morrison Butler today released the following statement in response to Governor J.B. Pritzker's intent to increase funding for early childhood education in his first budget by adding $100 million to Early Childhood Block Grants, which will support Chicago's plan for universal pre-K and ensure an additional 2,000 four-year-olds will be able to access full-day pre-K in the 2019-2020 school year.

“Chicago is on the path to ensuring universal full-day pre-K for four-year-olds for the first time in our city’s history. Governor Pritzker campaigned on the promise of expanding early childhood education. His first budget will not just keep that promise, it will help Chicago’s children live up to their full promise and potential. This state budget will help Chicago make history, ensure thousands more pre-school students and hundreds of infants and toddlers have access to high quality services, and help every child in every neighborhood start their education on the right foot.”

Background:

In May 2018, the Mayor announced a four-year-plan to ensure universal full-day pre-K for every four-year-old in Chicago.  This investment will provide $37M in early childhood funding to the City of Chicago that will be used to roll-out year two of the Mayor’s expansion plan, projecting to serve 2,050 additional four-year-olds in full-day preschool in the 2019-20 school year.

• Investments in the Early Childhood Block Grant are legislatively required to be spent on services for children age birth-to-five, with 25% targeted to children birth-to-three years old through Department of Family and Support Services.
• The Governor’s proposal also increases K-12 funding beyond the minimum laid out by the legislature in 2017. The Evidence-Based Funding Formula set forth in that legislation will determine CPS’s allocation of this increase.