On May 29, 2024 the California State Legislature released its joint legislative budget proposal. We applaud the legislators’ response to the Governor’s May Revise which demonstrated that they have heard us and stand with us. Since the spring, hundreds of parents have come to the Capitol and met with them in district urging them to maintain the state’s commitment to increasing child care spaces as promised and to protect CalWORKs.
The Legislature has rejected the notion that in times of budget deficit, California’s most vulnerable families have to shoulder the biggest burden. That’s a false choice.
While the Legislature’s budget proposal isn’t perfect, we thank the legislature for:
- Upholding the state’s commitment to expanding childcare access to over 11,000 infants and toddlers by rejecting cutting of funding allocated in the 2023 Budget Act for CCTR child care spaces
- Maintaining the Governor and Legislature’s 2021 commitment to expand child care access by 200,000 spaces (although delaying full implementation to 2028)
- Including language to move California towards paying providers the full cost of care
- Preserving CalWORKS single allocation and family stabilization by rejecting the Governor’s proposed budget cuts to the program
- Rejecting the majority of the Governor’s proposed budget cuts to subsidized employment
- Preserving a balance of $450 million in the Safety Net Reserve Fund
We thank the Committee chairs, Legislative leadership, the Legislative Women’s Caucus and our Legislative Child Care Champions for listening to hundreds of parent leaders and allies who have been meeting with them over the past four months. Thank you for taking action by rejecting some of the most harmful budget cuts proposed by the Governor. We see that you understand how harmful these cuts would be. Your legislative budget proposal shows that you not only want to protect California families with words but will do so with action.
We need our champions to keep pushing. Because our families need child care today. They cannot delay their children getting older. They cannot delay returning to work or school. They cannot defer their dreams while languishing on the waiting list. We continue to demand the Legislature and the Governor pass a final budget that does not further delay implementation of the 200,000 child care spaces that were promised to be met by the 2025-26 budget year.
California must remain a leader in building a whole child, whole family budget that centers racial, gender, and economic justice. To do that, we remain steadfast in our call for revenue solutions that must be on the table to meet the needs of California’s BIPOC families and early educators for years to come.