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| Linda Olivenbaum |
Budget Battle Successes for Child Care; A Momentous Early Learning Advocacy Day!
Budget Battle
CAAEYC, along with many partners, successfully worked to reverse many of Governor Brown’s harmful budget proposals for child care.
His May Revise “unpaused” funding that had been promised in 2016-17 and added modest increases for provider rates and for subsidized slots.
Further advocacy successfully worked to include in the budget that he just signed:
- $25 million for increasing the State Median Income (SMI) threshold and for 12-month eligibility. Both items make it easier for families to qualify for—and to continue to receive—subsidized child care while minimizing disruptions for providers. CAAEYC has advocated for both issues for many years;
- $42.2 million to increase the Regional Market Rate (RMR) reimbursement that providers who serve low-income families receive and to update the RMR to 2016 data (also positions for which CAAEYC has long advocated);
- $15 million for a “bridge” to help foster families receive support for child care;
- Establishing a stakeholder group to study health and safety issues of preschools located on school sites. This avoids removing those Title 22 protections as the Governor had proposed and will allow for a thoughtful process that includes all voices
None of these victories would have been possible without your advocacy. THANK YOU!
Early Learning Advocacy Day (ELAD)
Eileen McCourt, Public Policy Committee Member who chaired this year’s ELAD planning process reports:
Early learning advocates joined together to plan and execute a successful Early Learning Advocacy Day (ELAD) in Sacramento on Wednesday, May 24. More than twelve agencies and nonprofit organizations comprised the planning team, including California Alternative Payment Providers Association (CAPPA), California Association for the Education of Young Children (CAAEYC), California Child Development Administrators Association (CCDAA), California Head Start Association (CHSA), Children Now, First 5 Association, First 5 California, Resource and Referral Network, California Child Care Coordinators Association (CCCCA), Child Care Resource and Referral (CCRC), Californians for Quality Early Learning (CQEL), Child Care Law Center and Policy Analysis for CA Education (PACE).
A core group met regularly to share responsibility for meeting logistics, legislative appointments, defining and elaborating our talking points, writing a brief to leave with legislators and pulling together the panel to support preparation for the visits with legislators. Thirty-six appointments were made and at least two people were identified to attend each meeting.
Even though ELAD was late in the budget cycle, there was still considerable subject to matter to discuss with legislators in terms of the budget and supporting legislation. Approximately 50 people were in attendance. We were very fortunate to have up-to-the-minute news from our outstanding panel of experts. The panelists included Nina Buthee, with CCDAA; Donna Sneeringer, with Child Care Resource Center; Erin Gabel with First 5 California; and Linda Olivenbaum, with CAAEYC. There was plenty to learn and think about in preparation for our legislative meetings. All our panelists have extensive knowledge of the issues and deep experience as advocates for early childhood education. It’s a complex and iterative process becoming an advocate. We were reminded by the panelists that each one of them was new to the process at some point in time, which was a good thing to hear for those of us who may feel like novices as advocates. I have attended several ELAD events, but this was the first time I felt comfortable taking a leadership role in meetings with legislators.
Our panelists took us through the salient points of the May Budget Revise and informed us about emergent activity in the Legislature. Both the Senate and Assembly finance committees had approved budgets the previous day that included funds for our request to honor the multi-year agreement to update rates, giving us the hook to ask legislators to hold onto what had been agreed to in their finance committees when the governor comes back with cuts. In addition to our brief, we had a late breaking letter of support for our issues of updating the State Median Income, 12-month eligibility and raising the eligibility cap for exiting subsidized childcare programs to 85%. We could leave this with legislators who had not yet signed on to the letter. The immediacy of that document was a compelling talking point, showing who of their colleagues had already signed on to the letter.
It was beautiful day in Sacramento, and a great group of people to work with to advance our agenda in support of families and young children.
Contact Us!
To learn more about the work of the CAAEYC Public Policy Committee, please contact Chair Jean Goulart at bundleofjoy.jean@att.net. You too can participate in this significant work with our committee. Our voices are crucial to making sure that the children and families in our communities receive the highest quality child development programs and other services they need. All of this begins with informed public policy decisions.