Education Funding: Early Childhood
- Phoebe VanScoy-Giessler
- Jul 19
- 3 min read
If a budget is a reflection of your values, New Hampshire lawmakers do not value early childhood education. I think this is misguided and counterproductive, particularly for a state with an aging population interested in attracting young families.
My family was lucky to be able to send two of our children to The Children's Center. And, even though we had two full-time working parents in our home, paying the fees for these necessary and vital services was a big line item on our budget. While some support is available to very low income families, the middle income folks are getting squeezed and have to make difficult choices when it comes to care for their young children.
The even bigger irony is, childcare is SO expensive, and at the same time, childcare workers are EXTREMELY underpaid.
There's gotta be a better way!
SOURCES
New Hampshire Remains Among Final Five States Without State-Funded Preschool (April 22, 2026)
The National Institute for Early Education Research’s 2025 State of Preschool Yearbook presents a critical snapshot of preschool education in America. Currently, 44 states and DC fund preschool programs. Most state pre-K programs continue to primarily or only serve four-year-olds. Nationally, enrollment reached 37% of four-year-olds but only 9% of three-year-olds.
The National Institute for Early Education Research at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education, New Brunswick, NJ, supports early childhood education policy and practice through independent, objective research and the translation of research to policy and practice.
Annual Price of Child Care for Granite State Children Remains High as Number of Providers Decline (June 2, 2026)
A new New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute study finds that child care remains a significant financial challenge for many Granite State families. The analysis found that the average annual price of center-based care for an infant and a four-year-old reached nearly $30,000 in 2025, up from about $22,500 in 2017, while the number of licensed child care providers statewide declined by 120 programs.
The New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute is a nonpartisan, independent research nonprofit that examines issues related to the State budget, the economy, policy decisions, and the financial security of Granite Staters, centering on issues relevant to low- and moderate-income people and families.
New Hampshire ranks at the very bottom nationally for state-funded early childhood care. (July 2025)
It is one of only six states with zero state investments in pre-K programs. Local families face steep out-of-pocket costs because there are no direct state tax dollars allocated for public preschool or early childhood education.
VIDEO SUMMARY
Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected as of July 1, 2025 from the National Institute for Early Education Research, Education Commission of the States and The National Women’s Law Center.
New Futures Urges Focus on Supporting Investment in Early Education (June 8, 2026)
New Hampshire again ranks first in child well-being, according to the 2026 KIDS COUNT® Data Book, a 50-state report of recent data developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation analyzing how kids are faring nationwide.
... The scores track 16 indicators in four domains — economic well-being, education, health, and family and community factors — over five years from 2019 to 2024. The new scoring system shows whether policies and public investment are actually improving children’s lives, not merely how states compare to each other...
“We know what it takes to set children up for success, and we know what happens when we don’t make those investments early,” said Woitkowski. “New Hampshire has an opportunity to act on what the data is telling us. That means investing in a strong system of child care, which includes pre-K, protecting Medicaid for the one in four children who depend on it, and making sure every family can afford a stable home. Our rankings reflect our strengths, but our scores reflect our work, and there’s more work to do.”
For more than 25 years, New Futures has provided nonpartisan, evidence-based solutions to New Hampshire’s health challenges. New Futures works to build bridges among policymakers and secure the passage of laws that improve access to early childhood supports, health insurance, substance use treatment, and prevention programming. Through policy change, we can ensure that social service programs and statewide systems work for everyone. For more information, visit new-futures.org.
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