Monday, members of the Professional Association for Childhood Education (PACE), will receive a memo from their president, Pat Wilka (at right), urging them to contact the each of the representatives on the Joint Budget Conference Committee (as Wilka's letter states, "[Its] job is to go through the budgets passed by the Assembly and Senate budget committees, resolve differences and address unsolved issues. Any child care issue can resurface in the budget conference committee discussions, and we need to respond now so that the conference committee does not reduce childcare subsidies." [Emphases ours.]
As Wilka writes, "Together, we helped convince [the Assembly and Senate Budget Committees] to reject the Governor's May Revise Proposal to eliminate $1.4 billion in General Fund support for child care services and the $1.1 billion elimination of the CalWORKS program!"
Read on for the full memo.
To: Campaign to Save Child Care Endorsers
RE: Update on Child Care Budget actions in Assembly and Senate Budget Committees
Next Steps – Your help needed!
- First, thanks to all who have endorsed the Campaign to Save Child Care, and to the enormous number of endorsers and advocates who testified at the Assembly and Senate Budget hearings on child care over the past two weeks. Our endorsement list is growing daily and currently stands at over 175. We have good news to share! Together, we helped convince both committees to reject the Governor’s May Revise Proposal to eliminate $1.4 billion in General Fund support for child care services and the $1.1 billion elimination of the CalWORKs program!
- Now, the second phase of our Campaign begins. This Thursday, June 3rd the Joint Budget Conference Committee will begin meeting. Their job is to go through the budgets passed by the Assembly and Senate budget committees, resolve differences and address unresolved issues. Any child care issue can resurface in the budget conference committee discussions, and we need to respond now so that the conference committee does not reduce childcare subsidies.
- What Issues continue to be in play? The Assembly budget subcommittees rejected all of the Governor’s child care budget cut proposals. While the Senate budget committee also rejected the proposals, they did it in a way that means that child care issues will continue to be addressed in the conference committee. While any issues can come up again, the Senate budget committee asked staff and the Legislative Analyst Office to provide additional information on several issues:
- Family fees – Reviewing the current fee schedule and exploring the possibility of raising family fees
- Lowering the eligibility threshold for subsidized child care services from 75% of State Median Income to 60% of State Median Income
- Improper/overpayment of providers – a complex issue with many layers
- Exploring all options for maintaining direct child care services for families which could include decreases in funding currently allocated to improve the quality of child care
Other issues that could resurface for discussion include the January proposals to Reduce the RMR (regional market rate) ceilings paid to child care providers; the elimination of funds for Stage 3 child care; and the negative COLA – a .38% cut to all child development programs.
- What you can do now to help preserve and protects child care services!
Contact each of the representatives on the Budget conference committee as soon as possible and tell then why preserving and protecting child care services are important to YOU! Attached are sample letters you might want to use and share with your teachers, parents and vendors. The more letters from everyone, the better. This year there will be ten members – three democrats and two republicans on each side. The chart includes all ten members, and their email and fax numbers in
PACE will continue to keep you updated on any information forthcoming from the conference committee negotiations. PLEASE get your staff, parents and vendors involved in this critical letter writing campaign to save subsidized childcare funding. As our recent polling indicates, 452 centers indicated that 100% of them would be negatively impacted by budget cuts to childcare.
Please let the conference committee know how you feel about cuts to child care today!
Sincerely,
Pat Wilka, President
Professional Association for Childhood Education
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