Updates

ST. LOUIS (September 17, 2026) — St. Louis City voters will decide this November whether to establish a dedicated local funding source for early childhood education after Best Start for Kids STL qualified its citizen-led initiative for the Nov. 3 ballot. The measure will appear as City Proposition B.

Qualification follows a months-long petition campaign that brought together child care providers, parents, advocates, faith leaders, and business and community leaders from across the city. The campaign initially aimed to collect approximately 30,000 signatures and ultimately submitted more than 36,000 signatures to the St. Louis City Board of Election Commissioners in June.

Proposition B asks voters to approve a half-cent citywide sales tax dedicated to early childhood education for children ages 5 and younger. The measure is projected to generate approximately $22.4 million annually for a new St. Louis Early Childhood Education Fund in perpetuity.

This started with a call from St. Louisans demanding that our youngest children, working families, and early educators deserve better. As we gathered signatures, we engaged in thousands of conversations with St. Louisans who expressed urgency and excitement about the need to invest in child care. Now St. Louis City voters have the opportunity to decide whether we build a stronger, more affordable, and more stable early childhood education system and city.

- Mackenzie Grayson, Campaign Manager

If approved, funding would reduce the cost of early childhood education for families of all income levels, expand access to high-quality care, and help families return to work. Additionally, funding would strengthen and stabilize the child care workforce by increasing wages and benefits for early educators.

The measure comes as St. Louis families face skyrocketing child care costs and thousands of children lack access to care.
Currently, more than 6,000 St. Louis city children ages 5 and under who live in poverty lack access to child care. This causes children to fall behind as early as kindergarten and increases educational inequity. This measure will ensure St. Louis kids get the best possible start in school.

Even when both parents work full-time, many still struggle to afford child care. In St. Louis, research estimates that quality child care can cost as much as $31,000 per year for an infant. Research that helped shape the policy of Proposition B estimates that closing the gaps in early childhood access, affordability, and quality in St. Louis City would require approximately $148 million in additional annual investment.

The consequences extend beyond children and families.

A 2025 University of Missouri Extension analysis estimates that inadequate child care access costs Missouri businesses and governments more than $1.14 billion annually, including approximately $951 million in business losses from absenteeism and employee turnover and $194 million in lost state and local tax revenue.

Child care is critical infrastructure for families, the economy, and for the sustainability of our entire region. When parents cannot find or afford dependable care, employers lose workers, families lose income, and our economy destabilizes. Proposition B gives St. Louis the opportunity to build local infrastructure that helps parents work while giving children access to high-quality early education.

- Tony Thompson, Chairman and CEO of Kwame Building Group and longtime member of the Regional Business Council

The ballot initiative builds on years of work by St. Louis’ early childhood community to document gaps in care, organize parents and providers and advocate for greater public investment in early childhood education. That work included sustained organizing and policy development led by early childhood providers, families and community partners.

The initiative then advanced through a regional planning process conducted throughout 2024 and 2025 to examine gaps in early childhood access, the true cost of care and key actions stakeholders could implement together. The process included more than a dozen meetings involving 59 community leaders and four national consulting groups. Dr. Jason Purnell of the James S. McDonnell Foundation and Dr. Kelvin Adams of the St. Louis Community Foundation co-chaired the process.

That work led to a funding model designed to address three connected challenges: families struggling to afford care, providers struggling to operate sustainable programs, and early educators earning wages that make it difficult to remain in the profession.
If voters approve it, Proposition B would create a stable, long-term source of local funding for early childhood education in the City of St. Louis.

This is an opportunity for St. Louis to make a long-term investment in its children and families, which is the best investment any region can make. Parents need care they can afford. Educators need jobs that allow them to stay in this profession we love so much. And the region will win from children, families, and educators accessing the resources we need.

- Lisa Scheer, Child Care Provider and Campaign Treasurer

With the measure officially on the ballot, the campaign will focus on voter education ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

Contact: Lindsay Pattan (lindsay@pattan.co, 314-620-0023)