INDIANAPOLIS — Gov. Mike Braun on Thursday said he wants a greater emphasis on early education in the state’s child care programs.
The governor’s comments followed a tour of St. Mary’s Early Childhood Center downtown, during which Braun met children attending the center and talked with staff about the programs they offer.
St. Mary’s has been in operation for 65 years and primarily serves children ages three to five years, focusing on kindergarten readiness and early literacy. About 20% of the roughly 200 children it serves attend using Child Care Development Fund vouchers. Most of the rest use scholarships funded by donors.
Indiana’s child care system came to the forefront last year after the Braun administration drastically cut funding for CCDF vouchers, which pay for child care for low-income families. Those cuts were in response to the April 2025 budget forecast that projected a $2.4 billion drop in revenue due to uncertainty over the economic impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
That forecast turned out to be inaccurate.
Earlier this month, the Braun administration shifted $200 million into a state contingency fund to pay for new CCDF vouchers through the remainder of the 2026-2027 budget cycle, which ends on June 30 of next year. The state will be under the austere budget passed in response to the April 2025 forecast until then.
Braun said he wants to tour a variety child care centers in order to find out what works best. He said he wants to find a way to make the best types of child care services available throughout the state.
“These guys are a perfect example of how it looks like it needs to be done,” he said of St. Mary’s. “It’s going to cost more to do that, so to me, you ought to be learning as opposed to just having the child care/babysitting side of it. I’m going to look just like I have at anything, see what the best practices are and try to get broad buy-in to it.”
Michelle Radomsky, the center’s executive director, said 90% of brain development happens by age five, so children need to start learning as soon as possible. She said her facility emphasizes continuous professional development training for its staff and very small class sizes, with roughly seven children per instructor.
She said lawmakers need to find ways to incentivize child care centers to provide early childhood instruction.
“If (lawmakers) don’t want to fund just babysitting, then follow Paths to QUALITY,” she said, referring to Indiana’s child care rating system. “Or institute a new leveling system if they want to to make sure that the places that are providing quality early childhood education are being funded to the highest level, because they need be.”
Rep. Carey Hamilton, D-Indianapolis, said she’s glad to finally hear the governor talk about the need for more child care but added she’ll believe it when she sees specifics.
She said the governor should start by funding paid family leave and universal pre-K, both of which have long been legislative priorities for Indiana Democrats. Hamilton said most child care providers that receive state funding already provide a learning environment.
“For the past 10 years, I’ve watched governors talk about early learning and we haven’t really made much progress,” she said. “In fact, during the current administration, we’ve moved significantly backwards.”
It will be some time before any child care program from Braun becomes reality. Lawmakers begin work on the 2028-2029 budget in January. That budget won’t take effect until July of next year.
