January 25, 2013: Reading between the lines in an analysis of Governor Jerry Brown's State of the State address yesterday, John Fensterwald, writing in EdSource, noted: "The governor vowed to continue to enforce a fiscal discipline to protect against “great risks and uncertainties” that lie ahead. The implication is that he would discourage more funding for social programs – not encouraging for those calling for restoring cuts to preschool and child care..." This supports an earlier story (January 11, 2013) by EdSource's Lillian Mongeau, in which she analyzed the Governor's proposed budget and reportedthat "after years of funding cuts to early childhood programs, [the budget] would keep funding levels nearly the same as last year." [In the excerpt below, emphases are ours.]
“There was no restoration of the cuts from recent years, but no additional cuts,” said Rachel Ehlers of the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO).
Brown’s budget allocates $2.2 billion, including designated federal funds, to cover child care and state preschool for 340,000 children in the 2013-2014 fiscal year, said Ehlers. Some funding would be moved around within the CalWORKS child care program for low-income children, but it would not affect the number of children served or the overall funding available.
Scott Moore, senior policy analyst for the advocacy group Preschool California, said not restoring the lost funding was a missed opportunity. “That’s the number one glaring omission in the budget.” ...
Early childhood education programs have been cut by about $1 billion since the 2008-2009 fiscal year and now serve 110,000 fewer children than they did before the recession, according to the LAO...
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