The vast majority of states cut funding last year for programs that serve children, according to a report by the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies. The report, State Budget Cuts: America’s Kids Pay the Price, provides information on 43 states and the District of Columbia that made cuts in 2009 as determined by news accounts and the recent budget update from the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The cuts are resulting in distress of many kinds, according to the report and a log of recent news reports. Problems include waiting lists and reduced staff at child care centers and preschools; parents unable to pursue new jobs because they have no one to care for their children (since their current state of unemployment disqualifies them from receiving childcare subsidies); furloughs and increasing class sizes in public schools; and children whose families are not able to provide them with enough to eat. (A similar survey that focused on childcare, conducted by the National Women's Law Center in 2009, also showed an uptick in waiting lists, along with reductions in government reimbursements to childcare centers.)

These cuts are likely to reverberate into the educational system for years to come: Research continues to show that the fewer children who attend high-quality childcare and preschool programs, the fewer will be socially and cognitively prepared to succeed in school. Cuts to high-quality, evidence-based programs, which cost-benefit analyses show to be money well spent, are a real mistake.