WTV was originally founded at the “Early Childhood Funding Coalition,” a grassroots coalition with the goals of influencing and uplifting Governor Pritzker’s Illinois Commission on Equitable Early Childhood Education and Care Funding Recommendations. Since the recommendations were published, WTV has advocated for annual state early childhood budget increases and for program and funding design that prioritizes equity, workforce compensation, provider stability, and affordable access for families.
Annual Budget Advocacy
Each year, WTV joins with other coalitions, organizations, and individuals to advocate for increases to Illinois’ early childhood budget. Coalition members work together to develop annual budget asks and WTV creates toolkits and resources to support budget advocacy each spring.
Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) Budget Advocacy Toolkit
We, the Village releases an annual toolkit with our budget asks and ways to engage through in-person and online advocacy. While the FY27 budget has passed, you can learn more about our FY27 early childhood budget recommendations that invest in children, families, and the early childhood workforce.
Funding Redesign
WTV Policy Committee has been active in the Illinois Department of Early Childhood’s (IDEC) Funding Design Workgroup and Subcommittees since the beginning of that work, ensuring that diverse provider voice is present in funding redesign conversations and helping to educate the field in proposed changes to Illinois’ funding system.
Funding Design Public Comments
Policy Committee has delivered public comment at multiple IDEC Funding Design Workgroup meetings to help inform the continuous development of a viable funding formula in early childhood.
Video: Understanding the Illinois Funding Landscape
In July 2026, most early childhood programs are scheduled to transition from their legacy agencies to the new Illinois Department of Early Childhood (IDEC), a move that will change the ways that early childhood programs are funded. To help de-mystify this process for advocates, Illinois’ early childhood coalitions We, the Village and Raising Illinois are coming together to share information about this process and ways to engage with IDEC.
We brought together Bri Stormer, Assistant Director, Policy and Engagement at Illinois Action for Children and co-chair of the We, the Village Policy Committee; Kimberly Bianchini, Founder & Director of Advance Preschool, Inc. in Hoffman Estates; and Simone Santiago, Director of Raising Illinois for a discussion around how Illinois’s early childhood programs are currently funded, and what proposed changes are under the new IDEC structure.