But the fight is not over…
— It’s no coincidence! —
Here’s how we did it!
- More than 100 SEIU Local 99 members lobbied legislators in Sacramento.
- More than a dozen members visited legislators in their district offices.
- More than 1,000 members signed petitions, wrote letters, and sent postcards opposing cuts to early, K-12, and higher education.
- We made 400 calls to legislators and the Governor.
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I’m really proud that we went to Sacramento and they heard us. We saved 36,000 early care and education slots that the Governor proposed to cut. Sarah Leon, Options CDC Teacher |
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Here’s what we won!
- VICTORY! Preschool programs are now covered by guaranteed Prop. 98 education funding.
- VICTORY! The cut to early care and education programs dropped from $450 million to $100 million.
- VICTORY! There will be no realignment of early care and education funds to the counties (which would have meant we’d have no guarantee that money allocated for child care programs would be spent on child care programs).
- VICTORY! There won’t be 62,000 child care slots cut, as the Governor proposed in January. It was reduced to 26,000.
Nevertheless, the budget suspends any cost-of-living adjustments through 2014-15. The Governor made several additional last-minute cuts to balance the budget, including the collection of fees for part-day preschool, new CalWORKs requirements, cuts to funding for non-CalWORKs related families, and cuts to supplemental child nutrition reimbursements. The impact in terms of number of children served will vary depending on decisions that counties and agencies will be making in the coming days.
2 steps to victory in November!
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Pass the Revenue Initiative
To avoid $5.5 billion more in cuts, we must talk to voters and vote YES on Prop. 30!
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Protect Working Families’ Voices
Let’s spread the word to our client families, friends, and our own families: vote NO on Prop. 32! The “Special Exemptions” initiative is just a sneaky trick to silence our voices.
