Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson’s supplemental budget proposal for the 2025-27 biennium balances a projected $2 billion state budget deficit without adding new revenue. But, to reach that balance, the proposal reduces state‑funded child care and early learning programs — including a cap on the Working Connections Child Care (WCCC) caseload, cuts to provider subsidies and professional development funding, and other early learning budget reductions within the Department of Children, Youth, and Families.
State income hope in the midst of deficit
At the same time, Ferguson pushed lawmakers to impose a “millionaire’s tax” on those who earn more than $1 million a year. Doing so, according to the governor’s office, could bring in up to $3 billion a year for state programs and services, potentially moving the needle significantly toward universally affordable child care for all if coupled with funds from the state’s capital gains tax already dedicated to that cause. According to Amber Wallin, one of the architects of New Mexico’s new universal child care system, such dedicated, secure funding sources are key.
State lawmakers will be considering Ferguson’s proposals over the next three months during the 2026 state legislative session that launched this week.
“Washington doesn’t currently have a single dedicated revenue source for universal child care the way New Mexico uses permanent fund revenues,” said Rep. Steve Bergquist (D-Renton), chair of the Early Learning & Human Services Committee in the state House of Representatives. “However, we do already spend far more on early learning and child care subsidies than New Mexico does . . . Ultimately, universal access will require significant stable and progressive state revenue, and a clear decision that early learning is a core responsibility of the government.”
Universal child care depends on sustainable, dedicated state funding
In other words, making it a right for every family.
“Washington has made meaningful progress over the last few years,” Sen. T’wina Nobles (D-Fircrest), vice-chair of K-12 on the state Senate’s Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee, concurred with Bergquist. “Universal child care represents a major shift in how services are delivered statewide. To make that shift responsibly, we need long-term, dependable funding and not short-term fixes. Without sustainable revenue, we risk overpromising and underdelivering to families who are already stretched thin.”
Just before leaving office, former Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said he believes Washington’s wealthiest residents need to step up and pay their fair share to make child care affordable to all.
“Without a state income tax, we’re always doing smaller things around the edges,” Harrell said. “From a progressive tax standpoint, we as a city have very limited options. This can’t be solved alone by the City of Seattle.”
While state lawmakers can’t set child care prices, both Nobles and Sen. Claire Wilson (D-Auburn), vice-chair of early learning on the Senate’s Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee, agree they must help stabilize the market by increasing supply, removing unnecessary costs and procedural barriers, creating efficiencies in the child care system, and supporting providers.
“Low wages and burnout drive talented providers out of the field, which shrinks availability and pushes prices higher,” said Nobles. She added that child care must be viewed as essential infrastructure.
2026 state legislature is under way; shild care and early learning are on the agenda
Wilson and Nobles support companion legislation (House Bill 1128/Senate Bill 5062) introduced during the 2025 legislative session. If approved in the upcoming 2026 session, the bills would establish a statewide board to set employment standards, streamline regulations for establishing child care programs, and protect funding for child care. House Bill 1350, which would update to “true cost” the reimbursement rates for the Working Connections Child Care, may also return to the legislature in 2026.
Bergquist says he’s planning to introduce legislation to provide scholarships for people working to become early learning instructors. And, he’ll sponsor a bill that will lead to a significant increase in early childhood education access: That bill would allow the state to accept an annual investment of $170 million from Ballmer Group for Washington’s Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP).
“That funding could support up to 10,000 additional preschool slots over the next decade,” Bergquist said.
Pushing legislation in Congress
While lawmakers here try to balance budget cuts and family needs in Washington, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Bothell) is pushing for approval of the Child Care for Working Families Act in the other Washington. The legislation would ensure and increase access to affordable child care and high-quality preschool to all American families and could otherwise help push Washington over the universally accessible line.
“I am going to keep pushing to get this legislation signed into law and deliver the relief that families in Seattle and all across the country are counting on,” Murray, who’s fought for the act since 2017, said.
Pushing a rock up hill
In the meantimes, Trump and his administration have made a string of decisions in the past year to roll back any state and federal gains in early childhood education or equitable child care access.
On New Year’s Eve, the Trump administration announced that due to allegations of fraud by Somali child care providers in Minnesota, it would freeze federal funds to help low-income families pay for child care in all states, alarming parents, workers and child care advocates here and across the nation. Then on Jan. 6, the administration reversed itself, announcing it would withhold $10 billion from five Democrat-led states — Minnesota, New York, California, Illinois, and Colorado. The funds will be held until states complete a review process to verify the absence of fraud.
A year if chaos
Since Trump’s inauguration almost one year ago, federal administrative and budget decisions under the Trump administration have further strained Washington’s already fragile child care system and stressed both parents and workers, according to national reporting and state advocates. There have been delays in grant approvals and reimbursements for early learning programs, including Head Start and child care assistance, and disrupted cash flow for providers across the state, many of whom operate on thin margins and rely on predictable federal payments to meet payroll and licensing requirements.
According to the National Women’s Law Center, staffing reductions and regional office consolidations within the federal Administration for Children and Families have further limited technical assistance available to Washington agencies and providers, reducing oversight and support during a period marked by workforce shortages, rising costs, and persistent child care access gaps.
An administration adding to parent pressures
Federal budget decisions during this period have compounded child care pressures for Washington families. Proposals to hold the federal Child Care and Development Fund flat failed to keep pace with inflation and rising labor costs, effectively shrinking the level of assistance available to help families afford care, according to child care policy analysts at The Century Foundation.
Other targeted programs — such as grants that help Washington’s student parents remain enrolled in college and federal initiatives that support early childhood system-building — have faced repeated uncertainty or proposed elimination, despite U.S. Department Health and Human Service finding that “Higher child care subsidy expenditures significantly increase labor force participation and employment rates of low-income mothers in the United States.” Economists and policy researchers at Brookings Institution warn that continued instability in child care funding has consequences not only for individual families, but for the broader economy and labor force in Washington and across the U.S.
The message to families, particularly those with low incomes or nontraditional work schedules, is unmistakable: child care should remain a private struggle rather than a public priority, even as its breakdown continues to drag on the broader economy.
Washington will keep universally affordable care a goal
Lawmakers here say they will continue to move the ball of universal child care forward until Washington reaches the finish line and all families have access to care they can afford, that allows them them work, and gives kids a leg up in life.
“Universal child care is about more than access,” said Nobles. “It’s about opportunity, stability, and dignity for families and for the people who care for our kids.”
Read more from our coverage of what it will take to advance universal child care in Seattle:
Universal Child Care: What can Seattle learn from New Mexico? New Mexico’s new universal, no-fee child care system has insights
The cost of child care: One block, five families, $200,000+ a year Child care for two kids can cost as much as four years of college tuition
Immigrant providers are critical to achieving universal child care Equity in child care access depends on it
What’s the DEEL? Seattle’s work toward universal child care: DEEL Director Dwane Chappelle discusses where we are and what it will take
Child care by the numbers—and where to turn for help: Seattle is a ways away from universal child care, but assistss thousands with care
In Seattle, few employers significantly subsidize child care: Outlier YMCA considers child care ‘not a perk, but a foundation for equity and opportunity
‘We need long-term funding not short-term fixes’: City and state leaders say they’ll keep working to address the state’s child care crisis
