LINCOLN — More than 80% of respondents in a new statewide survey agree, and about half strongly agree, that Nebraska lawmakers should support child care and early learning programs as they do for K-12 grades and higher education.

About the same proportions believe state legislators should make child care and early learning a higher priority than it is today.

And the bulk of parents, nonparents, rural and urban folks alike favored using a portion of a state budget surplus to help pay for better services.

Those were among results of the survey released Wednesday and conducted for We Care for Kids/Por todos los niños and the Nebraska Extension early childhood development arm.

“This survey is a message from Nebraskans for lawmakers to act, and act big, on access to quality, affordable child care and early learning,” said Kathleen Lodl, associate dean at Nebraska Extension.

New Bridge Strategy in January interviewed 501 registered voters representing various backgrounds, political affiliations and parts of the state. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.38% for the overall sample.

Results of the partnership’s third annual survey are to be distributed to legislators, policymakers and others in an effort to rally for increased attention to affordable and quality child care services, says Claire Wiebe of We Care for Kids.

The partnership of more than 120 state and community-based organizations is coordinated by the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska. The survey comes amidst alarm in the industry.

According to the partnership, 91% of counties in Nebraska with child care facilities do not have enough available slots to meet demand, and 11 counties have no licensed child care facilities.

Nearly 30% of home-based child care providers and 20% of center-based teachers depend on some type of public assistance.

Wiebe said various communities are working to improve access to affordable child care and early learning programming and “can’t do it alone.” 

Citing the survey, she said, “Clearly, there is a strong desire to fix Nebraska’s child care crisis and for state government to do its part.”

Lori Weigel of New Bridge led the survey and said a “bottom line” takeaway was that Nebraska voters value early education and childcare as a key to the state’s economic and social well-being.

“People are connecting the dots with the economy, ” she said. 

Weigel pointed to the 83% of respondents who said access to quality and affordable child care is essential or very important to strengthening the economy.

She also pointed out feedback to a question about whether those surveyed would support investing as much as $190 million annually over a decade to boost early learning and child care programming. Respondents were told Nebraska has a $2 billion surplus. 

To that spending proposition, 79% were supporters and 18% opposed the idea.

Online respondents were asked to explain their support. Top answers: children are the future of Nebraska (21%); early childhood education is important and education is a priority (17%); quality education helps children develop properly (14%). 

Top reasons among the share who opposed the investment: too much money overall (24%); money should go to other priorities (24%); more money to schools won’t help (14%).

Wiebe said some positive movement was made during the past legislative session, including an amended Legislative Bill 856, which changed a Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services rule that prohibited home child care providers from receiving free child care assistance for their own children. She said LB 1416, amended into LB 164, also supported early childhood education and showed lawmakers were interested in improvements.