"Children Learning, Parents Earning, Communities Growing"
June 14, 2021 | Issue #24
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Governor Newsom, your silence is deafening

by Denyne Colburn, CEO of CAPPA. Someone help me understand why Governor Newsom dislikes child care providers so much. Since release of his 2021-22 May Revision, I have been perplexed at Governor Newsom's brazen disregard to act honorably toward a workforce who stepped up like no other, put their own welfare in jeopardy by showing up each and every day to watch babies and children so that other critical workers could report to work. For their selfless act of being ready to provide the core support to hundreds and thousands of essential working families, what was their recognition of their selfless act? A BIG FAT ZERO.

As far as I can tell, the only workforce left out of being recognized in the May Revision, was child care providers. California has a more than $76 billion dollar surplus. The governor found the means to create more than 400 new programs, pay back debts and even go so far as to give correctional officers a $5,000 "pandemic bonus." For child care providers, nothing. No rate increase, no commitment to come to the table for conversations and a commitment to continue keeping their reimbursement rates at 2015 poverty levels of between $3.30 to $9.50 per hour. He did propose a 1.07 percent Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) but for others over 4 percent.

As if the above isn't offensive enough California's child care field has also been short changed in a number of other ways. Here are a couple head scratchers:
  1. In 2020-21, to help support access of essential workers to secure child care during the pandemic, the legislature pursued and the Governor signed funding over $21 million to come from Proposition 64 for child care slots. NOT DONE! However, the governor proposes an additional $83 million for 2021-22. Will these be real?
  2. The Governor proposed $25 million in one-time monies to target expansion of child care in areas noted as child care deserts. Candidly, based on the failure to reimburse providers meaningful rates, nearly every county is considered a child care desert. Failure to reimburse providers livable rates created this problem. The Governor wants to study the problem he has contributed to creating?
  3. For community contractors that serve our lowest income working families, they have received their 2021-22 contracts effective July 1, and most will need to disenroll families! So while we are focusing on serving new families, there too should be a focus on stabilizing those currently enrolled.
  4. Roughly 200,000 new child care slots are proposed. This is outstanding except for the fact, that this number will nearly triple the existing community contractors that enroll families. These community agencies can ramp up to serve the new families IF monies are provided beginning July 1 to begin hiring staff to meet the needs of these new families.

Thankfully, the leadership of the California State Assembly and Senate have taken the reigns and are pushing back for child care. Tomorrow, they will be putting forward a 2021-22 budget that provides $1.1 billion to increase provider rates on January 1, 2022 to the 85th percentile of the 2018 Regional Market Rate (RMR) ceiling. They further added an additional 106,500 to the 100,000 proposed to total 206,500 new slots. Finally, some one-time investments also include stipends, hold harmless policies, $250 million for the workforce and $250 million for facilities.

To the members of the California State Legislation, respect and appreciation. Governor Newsom, please sign the package on child care coming to you. California's child care and early learning workforce have shouldered California's essential workers and the economy since this crisis started. Recognize their contributions and honor them with a signature approving every last dollar owed to them.
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