Hillary meets with us.
SEIU early educators across the country are working hard to make sure early care and education are a HIGH PROFILE issue in 2016 Presidential Race!
And when we say high profile, we mean it!
Child care providers, Head Start teachers and parents from around the country—including our own SEIU Local 99 Executive Board Member, Head Start Teacher Claudia Iraheta—sat down with Hillary Clinton on May 20th in Chicago to talk about the need for meaningful, effective investment in our country’s early education system…including worthy wages for those of us caring for and preparing our littlest learners for success in school.
Later that day after meeting with us, Hillary tweeted, “When we short-change childcare workers, we short-change kids and America’s future.”
We win an extraordinary opportunity to sit down face-to-face with licensing.
On April 14, SEIU Local 99 members Regina Tucker, Yvonne Cottage and Linda Lauderdale joined other providers in Sacramento to meet with the California Department of Social Service’s office of Community Care Licensing.
This was the first time that our Raising California Together coalition has been invited to participate in these policy discussions. We were able to shine light on several issues that are very important to providers, such as:
- The lack of clear guidelines regarding the use of garages in family child care settings,
- Ratios and capacity in family child care homes,
- Lack of consistent, clear information statewide,
- Licensing visits during non-operating hours,
- The need for a more collaborative relationship between providers and licensing analysts.
CCRC invites us to participate in its San Bernardino family event.
In April, CCRC invited SEIU Local 99 providers to participate in its 2nd Annual Family Play Day, where hundreds of area families enjoyed kid-friendly activities while they learned about available community resources. Five of us worked our booth where we talked to families and other child care providers about the importance of The Raising Child Care Quality and Accessibility Act (SB 548). We gathered 124 signed cards in support of this important bill—including 34 very special ones from children—and delivered them to Governor Brown’s office during our Midnight Ride lobby trip.
Our voice is sought at two important policy events.
SEIU Local 99 Executive Board Member Tonia McMillian, a provider in Bellflower, was invited by the Child Care Resource Center to participate on a panel at their Policy Breakfast in April, along with other child care advocacy and policy organizations. This is the first time that child care providers have been included in this important annual event. We told them about SB 548 and the need to invest in child care if we want to lift communities out of poverty.
While at this event, some of us spoke with staff at PEACH (Partnerships for Education, Articulation and Coordination through Higher Education), which works to improve paths to higher learning for current and future early care and education professionals in Los Angeles County. We were enthusiastically invited to participate in their Infant/Toddler Stakeholder Meeting at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Downtown Los Angeles on April 21. “We would love to have the union voice at our event!” So several of us attended and spoke about our desire for more education and training opportunities. We also spoke about the things that sometimes hold us back, such as class schedules and cost. This is a great start to more conversations with them.
As we continue to speak out about the need to fix our broken child care system, it’s important to note that:
|
