January 14, 2019

We applaud Governor Newsom’s initial Early Care and Education proposals and his increased focus on children and families. We especially applaud his comments about supporting two generation approaches for low income families.

While the proposals are strong on preschool and newborns we are hopeful that, over the next few months, the Governor will more deliberately support low income working families who need full working day child care and full year support. Many of these families work nontraditional hours and need child care help on the evenings and weekends.

At CCRC, we have a waiting list of 29,074 families who are desperate for flexible child care support for their 52,231 children so that they can continue to work. These are families that are eligible for support earning less than 70% of the state median income but cannot receive a voucher. Currently we only have sufficient funding to address the needs of 8-10% of all of those eligible.

These families do not want to go on welfare. We often receive calls from parents who are in jeopardy of losing their jobs due to missing too much time at work because they don’t have consistent child care. They would love to be able to choose “high quality” care but they can’t afford it. It makes no sense that a parent has to lose their job and go on welfare so that they can qualify for a child care entitlement which requires they find a job. We are anxious to end this negative cycle. Let’s find ways to keep them in their jobs in the first place.

We look forward to working with the Governor and the legislature to craft a budget that addresses the needs of working parents, their children, and all child care providers.

If you have any comments or questions, please email [email protected]