Pierce County to boost early childhood programs with money from Sound Transit 3
Pierce County is ready to start spending some of the $130 million it is getting for education programs as part of the Sound Transit 3 project.
As part of its 2022-23 budget adoption, the County Council allocated $8.743 million of the ST3 money to focus largely on early childhood education and care. Sound Transit 3 raised billions in tax revenue to expand light rail and other transit projects throughout the Puget Sound region.
In 2015, the state Legislature directed that some Sound Transit 3 funds raised from a fee on ST3 construction projects be used by King, Pierce and Snohomish counties to improve education from early learning to higher education.
In population-based allocations, $318 million was designated for King County, $130 million for Pierce County and $81 million for Snohomish County. The counties have 19 years, or until 2034, to spend the dollars.
Pierce County held stakeholder meetings in 2019. Those groups recommended focusing on children from low-income families, who are vulnerable or have experienced homelessness or have experienced foster care or relative care.
County Council Chairman Derek Young (D-Gig Harbor) said the council wanted waited to begin allocating the money while it considered an educational endowment, which usually involves private philanthropy and state consultation.
“I don’t want to necessarily spend all of the money that we have right now,” he said. “These are one-time dollars that will come over the next 25 years. It will go through like a generation of kids. But what would be really incredible is that we could turn this once-in-a-generation funding into a permanent promise to children and peers.”
Young hopes the council will decide to place a quarter of the $130 million dollars, or around $32.5 million dollars into the endowment.
The council is interested in focusing on early education care. The pandemic highlights the importance of access to early childhood care and education. Young said he wants early education and care providers to have higher wages, and for front-line workers to have easier access to childcare.
“COVID put a wrecking ball into the childcare industry — it was already difficult. It made life essentially impossible with the pandemic,” he said.
In the 2021-2022 budget, the council approved the following earmarks for the fund:
An initial deposit for the endowment: $2.5 million
Child Care Capacity Initiative: $1.25 million
Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center $1 million
Child Care Aware of Washington scholarships: $1 million
First Five Fundamentals business start-up grants: $1 million
Step By Step Family Support Center: $500,000
Child Care Resources real-time vacancy database: $200,000
Child Care Resources homeless childcare subsidy program: $300,000
HopeSparks Family Services: $650,000
Childcare vouchers for Pierce County student-parents: $200,000
University of Washington Tacoma science, technology, and engineering equipment: $143,000
Further conversation is expected in early 2022 about additional Sound Transit 3 allocations, spokesperson Brynn Grimley said in an email.
King County already allocated its $318 million into construction and renovations of early childhood facilities, services for high school students through post secondary acceptance, and positive racial and ethnic identity development.
