FINAL REPORT AVAILABLE NOW!
FINAL REPORT AVAILABLE NOW!
The Anchorage Child Care and Early Education (ACCEE) Fund Implementation Team published its final report and recommended budget for 2025. The submission of the final report and budget recommendations marks the end of a near-year-long, community-directed effort to lay the foundation for the important work the ACCEE Fund will accomplish in the years to come.
“The Implementation Team’s final report reflects ten months of work to understand the problem at hand. The sector is in crisis; the expected $5 million in annual revenue is not enough to fill the deep need for funding throughout the sector, but we must begin somewhere. It’s our belief, building on the feedback of hundreds of parents and practitioners throughout this process, that we should start with improving access, and our proposed budget aims to do that.”
- Jessica Simonsen, parent and co-chair of the Implementation Team
Thank you.
Thank you! We did it. With the passage of Proposition 14 in April 2023, we made a significant and lasting commitment to investing in child care and early education. And Anchorage kids, families, and businesses will be better off because of it.
We are currently working to implement the Anchorage Child Care and Early Education (ACCEE) Fund. We aim to develop a system that meets immediate child care and early education needs in our community while also building a more sustainable system for years to come.
Please read below for more information about the ACCEE Fund.
About
In April of 2023, Proposition 14 – the Anchorage Child Care and Early Education Fund (ACCEE Fund) – passed with strong support from Anchorage voters, by a nearly 12-point margin. Proposition 14 dedicates the Municipality of Anchorage’s marijuana tax revenue to child care and early childhood education. The funds started accumulating in January of 2024, with an estimated five million dollars available annually. The ACCEE Fund can be spent creating access to child care and early education programs; supporting reading programs; supporting child care or early education provider training, professional development, staffing, and/or livable wages; or funding facilities. Funding can be delivered in a variety of ways, including through the issuance of grants or the completion of studies or research related to child care and early education.
Proposition 14 also established the Anchorage Child Care and Early Education Fund Board. Members are appointed by the Anchorage Mayor and confirmed by the Anchorage Assembly. The Board advises the Mayor and Assembly on use of the funds and presents a proposed budget to both annually. In September of 2024, since Board members were not yet appointed, the Implementation Team (see below) prepared a draft 2025 budget, which it submitted in its final report to the Mayor and Assembly. After the budget is reviewed and finalized by the Mayor and Assembly, funds will start being dispersed in 2025. In future years, the Board will propose annual ACCEE Fund budgets.
To ensure ACCEE funds are used effectively, a private and public partnership between the Municipality of Anchorage and the Alaska Children’s Trust was formed soon after the proposition passed. In the fall of 2023, the Implementation Team was formed. The Implementation Team was responsible for analyzing child care and early education best practices, strategies, and trends; communicating and engaging with the public about the ACCEE Fund; participating in listening sessions and meeting with other stakeholders, such as providers, parents, businesses, and community partners; developing a draft 2025 budget and detailing how best to use these funds immediately as well as how to build a sustainable system for our families; bringing forward an ordinance to the Anchorage Assembly that lays out the Board’s responsibilities, composition, and operations; and supporting the Board as it is seated. The Implementation Team prepared and submitted a final report and budget in early September, 2024, and soon after Board members were appointed and confirmed.
Anchorage Assembly Resolution 2023-404, passed on November 21, 2023, described the implementation plan and timeline for the ACCEE Fund, and Anchorage Assembly Information Memorandum 45-2024, dated April 9, 2024, provided an update of work done by the Implementation Team through March of 2024. The Implementation Team’s final report and proposed budget are also now available.