FLASH UPDATE on SB 548After passing in the State Senate in June, our bill is now being considered by the Assembly. On July 8, we passed the first hurdle when the Assembly Labor Committee approved our bill. Next step: the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Stay tuned! |
On June 16, 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 rates and slots to ensure more working families have access to quality child care. 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 which will address the crisis in our child care system through training and collective bargaining for child care workers.
Read the press release from the The Raising California Together Coalition here.
We worked hard this year to make this happen…
SB 548 PASSES SENATE ON JUNE 3!!!We marched and protested and the Senate passed our bill LATER THAT SAME DAY! |
Back in early June, as the state legislature and the governor got closer to finalizing the budget, we decided to take some very serious steps about this very serious issue: a child care system that works! So we went up to Sacramento on June 3 to make sure they didn’t forget about one of the greatest needs in the state today.
Our actions—a rally, a march and a peaceful sit-in that blocked the street—echoed past fights for justice in our nation’s history.
We must win:
- Children’s access to quality care that gives them a chance to succeed in school
(…later in June, the legislature and governor did finalize a budget that gave more children and families access to child care—due to our hard work and lobbying!) - A safe place for working parent’s to get care for their kids while they provide for their families
- A child care system that allows providers to provide for our own families
- A voice for providers in our own industry
Make no mistake! These are civil rights issues!
Civil rights icon Dolores Huerta was among the leaders speaking at our rally to urge the Governor to give providers a voice to fix California’s broken child care system.
Moms, grandmas and aunts got arrested for quality child care. That was quite a sacrifice!
We’ve really made some huge progress this year in our struggle to win collective bargaining. Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, Senate leader Kevin de León, the California Women’s Caucus, and both Assembly and Senate budget Committees have made strengthening our child care system a top priority. Now we need Governor Brown to do his part to expand access to child care that helps kids succeed, and enable child care providers to have a role in transforming the system to better serve kids and parents.
The day’s events—a rally, a march and the civil disobedience—are a result of our unprecedented Raising California Together coalition, which has unified child care providers, agencies, parents, educators, clergy and interfaith networks, unions, small businesses, women’s and children’s advocates, community groups, and public health organizations around solutions that go beyond the minimum wage to lift families out of poverty by increasing access to quality child care and early learning choices.
News coverage from the day…
- Sacramento Bee Video: Protesters block traffic, arrested outside Capitol
- The Guardian: Fourteen arrests at California protest in support of childcare reforms
- KFBK Radio Sacramento: Protesters Calling For Child Care Reform Block Traffic
- The big newspaper in our state capital, The Sacramento Bee, said in an editorial that we need more child care and that providers’ “low pay has long been a scandal.”
- NBC 3 Sacramento: Group blocks downtown street during child care rally
