The $24 billion state budget sent to Gov. Jay Nixon Thursday eliminates the appropriation from the Department of Social Services. The funding was part of money received through a state gaming pool dedicated to early childhood initiatives.

Among the cuts was a $3 million state program to supplement federal Head Start slots for low-income children under 3. A state official said the program currently supports 720 children in child care centers that meet federal Head Start performance standards. The cut will reduce those child care openings by half.

For one local agency, the cut could affect 48 children it serves in day cares in St. Louis and St. Charles County.

James Braun, CEO of Youth In Need, said those children could lose those slots at the end of June. "Most of their parents are working very low-wage jobs and would not be able to, on a dime, find other child care. Some of them may be working poor and may not qualify for a child care subsidy, and these people probably will lose their jobs" as they will have to stay home to care for their children.

The cuts were first made Wednesday evening, as a conference committee of House and Senate members ironed out the last details of the budget. The last-minute cuts were later approved with no legislative debate in a flurry of final budget votes.

The cuts culminate a budget debate in which funding for child care, preschool programs and child care subsidies were often in jeopardy.

Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, at one point threatened to cut nearly $12 million of the Missouri Preschool Project in a political dispute with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education over its administration of a specific federal grant proposal for preschool children.

But as budget negotiations wound down this month, child advocates said they were assured by lawmakers that funding would be restored and most early childhood programs were safe. 榴莲视频 were shocked to find differently late Thursday night.

"Those of us that were walking around the Capitol were repeatedly told our funding was OK," said Jack Jensen, executive director of First Chance for Children of Columbia, who had driven to Jefferson City to ask legislators to protect the funds.

State Budget Director Linda Luebbering said the money from all three of the programs was redirected to the Department of Education to restore funds that had previously been cut from an early childhood special education program. That program had to be funded at its full level because of a Supreme Court ruling, Luebbering said.

Rep. Genise Montecillo who was on the conference committee that hammered out the cuts Wednesday, said advocates shouldn't have been completely surprised.

Montecillo, D-St. Louis, said lawmakers were forced to make a lot of "eleventh-hour compromises." There was some belief among the committee members that centers and parents could access funding through other means, she said.

"I think we did a pretty good job with the revenue we have," she said, noting the committee worked hard to save nearly $13 million in funding for home-based early childhood programs for at-risk children such as Nurses for Newborns.

"I don't think there was any opposition to the programs per se, they were just hard cuts," she said. "We don't have enough revenue."

Montecillo said the Senate's failure to pass a tax amnesty bill that was expected to net the state at least $60 million in revenue that could have helped balanced the budget.

The two other programs cut completely were the $3.7 million Start-Up and Expansion program to create or expand licensed child care facilities and the $3 million Child Care Accreditation Facilitation Program.

Carol Scott, of Child Care Aware of Missouri, said the latter program helps existing child care centers gain state or national accreditation and qualify for a higher rate of subsidy reimbursement for serving low-income children. She said her organization received $600,000 from the program. Now the group's regional offices will likely have to reduce staff, and 120 child care centers will lose assistance in a difficult process to gain accreditation, she said.

Pam Batchelor, owner of Imagination Center in O'Fallon, Mo., said the cuts will amount to her losing 20 Head Start enrollees. She said she will work with affected parents to see if they qualify for a state child care subsidy to keep their children enrolled. But she is not sure how many will qualify.

"We have a lot of young parents," she said. "They have low-income jobs. They are going to school at the same time. And if their source for child care gets pulled, we are really concerned about what that is going to do for their family."

Advocates are hopeful the money could be restored next fiscal year with the approval of a bill that would re-establish a more dedicated funding source for these early childhood initiatives. But waiting a year for the money to possibly be restored is a long time.

"In the meantime, dozens of people are going to lose their jobs," Scott said.