BATON ROUGE - Advocates on Tuesday called for the state legislature to allot more funding to early childhood education, which they say would strengthen children's futures and boost the state economy. 

Members of the Ready Louisiana Coalition were at the Capitol Tuesday morning to highlight the need for investment in ECE. RLC is encouraging the legislature to put at least $87.8 million into the Child Care Assistance Program into the 2025-26 state budget. 

"Without this funding, thousands of children will lose their child care seats, and their parents will be unable to participate in the workforce reliably," the coalition said.