On June 16, 2015, a state budget deal was reached between Governor Brown and legislative leaders.
Through the hard work of union members who have fought to make their voices heard on this issue, the budget includes:
- Increased reimbursement rates for providers, and
- 6,800 more child care slots
It’s a good first step, but reforms are still needed and we’re urging legislators to pass and Governor Brown to sign SB 548: The Raising Child Care Quality and Accessibility Act. This bill will address the crisis in our child care system through training and collective bargaining for child care workers.
Read the press release from The Raising California Together Coalition, our partners in this efforts, here.
We will continue to urge Governor Brown to sign SB 548: The Raising Child Care Quality and Accessibility Act
Parents are struggling to pay for quality child care—even while early care and education workers struggle to earn a living. Parents worry that without effective, affordable child care their children will start kindergarten behind and never catch up. SB 548 will help Californians break out of this storm of rising inequality.
This bill would provide:
- More training for us! SB 548 will expand training for all early educators, including affordable higher education.
- More power for us! This bill will give front-line family child care providers a voice in our industry and the right to collective bargaining.
- More support for parents! The Raising Child Care Quality and Accessibility Act will fund research on the most effective ways to support parents as they seek to get involved in their children’s learning.
- More spaces for kids! The bill increases the number of low-cost early care and education openings for working parents, which were eliminated during the Great Recession. (This portion of the bill will be addressed in the state budget that Governor Brown and the Legislature agreed on. See above.)
On June 17th, we continued our call for collective bargaining rights!
We made some more noise in Sacramento, including a press conference in front of the capitol building attended by clergy, parent advocates, child care providers…and a lot of cute kids! We made sure Sacramento leaders understand that adding slots and increases to our rates are a move in the right direction, but only those of us who do the work truly know how to fix things for kids, parents and providers. We need a voice!
The children delivered symbolic gifts to the Governor’s office and to Senate Pro Tem Kevin de León and Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins: bread and roses and a copy of the children’s book “Click, Clack, Moo.”
This June 17 was just a part of our ongoing campaign…
We’ve done a lot this year.
Providers, parents and other child care advocates from across California have not stopped calling on our leaders to fix our broken child care system. Here are just a few of the ways we’ve lifted quality child care as one of the most important state and national issues of our time:
On June 3rd, brave women got arrested to protest the state’s broken child care system.
Read more about this exciting day.
We sat down with Hillary in May!
Early educators from around the country are making sure national leaders understand that this is the issue of our time! Learn more about about this exciting day.
Our recent “Midnight Ride” to Sacramento also made a difference…
On April 29th, SEIU Local 99 child care providers, parents and kids traveled up to Sacramento to rally and talk face-to-face with legislators about the importance of SB 548. We were excited to learn that the bill passed in the Assembly Labor Committee soon after our buses rolled in to the capital. This is one more important step that brings us closer to getting our bill through the legislature. That morning, we held a rally attended by State Senators Holly Mitchell and Hannah-Beth Jackson. Both of these leaders are members of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus, which has been working to improve access to child care in California. We were also joined by Assemblyman Isadore Hall.
We started off our year of ACTION in February…
On February 18, 2015, we introduced a new legislative bill—SB 548, the Raising Child Care Quality and Accessibility Act—that has the support of a growing coalition of…
- Agencies
- Parents
- Educators
- Clergy and interfaith networks
- Women’s and children’s advocates
- Community groups, and
- Public health organizations…Our movement is growing stronger!
Check out the TV news coverage from our February 18 Lobby Day in Sacramento!
SB 548—the Raising Child Care Quality and Accessibility Act—was authored by Senate Pro Tem Kevin de León. He introduced it on February 18. Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins joined as a principal co-author. To highlight the bill’s importance, more than 200 providers, parents, kids and supporters from across California descended on Sacramento on to advocate for a child care system that truly values California providers and the children and families we serve. We decorated the capital with our “Raising Hands” artwork, held a “Speak Out” to tell parent and provider stories of their day-to-day struggle, and talked to 65 legislators or their key child care policy folks about our new bill.
We will continue to PUSH HARD to ensure this bill becomes LAW!
Now more than ever we must continue to work hard engaging other providers, parents, allies and state leaders in the fight for quality child care for all children and a child care system that works for parents and providers!
What’s next?
We will continue our lobbying efforts in Sacramento and in legislators’ home districts and we’ll take every opportunity to speak out on parent and providers’ needs. We will show Sacramento that families and providers are determined to fix our child care system now!
Yes! I’m interested in visiting my legislator at their local neighborhood office!
I’ll call (213) 220-6523 to schedule it today!
