Advocates worry about day-care worker fund as D.C. budget tensions loom

As D.C. waits to see the mayor’s proposed budget, some parents and child-care advocates are worried about the fate of a first-of-its-kind fund that pays stipends to teachers, caregivers, and other adults who work with babies and toddlers. The Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund has paid more than $80 million to 4,000 day-care teachers to bring their salaries in line with their peers in public schools, according to D.C.’s state superintendent of education. It also supports health benefits for workers, advocates say. But amid a tough budget, strained by...