Like many of you, there is so much gratitude and even relief that California's child care system has finally been promised historical funding to increase by nearly 200,000 child care slots for working families to access and an increase in the reimbursement rates paid to child care providers. I say "promised" because as of this writing, the Department of Finance has not released any details of the promised funding. And as we all know, our field cannot take a promise to the bank. But that will be addressed in a later column.

In addition to the above and in reflection of what was secured this year, Universal Transitional Kindergarten (UTK) by the 2025-26 school year and the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program to provide up to nine hours of of education and care only on school grounds, are there conversations being had that are leaving out community partners, the voices of families and the private child care centers and family child care providers? Based on the outcomes, the answer is yes.

If one were to sit back and really look at the UTK expansion, this huge expansion has the opportunity to benefit so many. It also creates an uneven playing field wherein based on this policy it is saying that only the public school system is appropriate to educate three and four year olds. Thankfully, the legislature and the governor both supported inclusion of parental choice for subsidized families to access or continue participating in a child care setting or program that better supports their needs but that too is for another column. The expansion of to up to nine hours of education and care for all children in grades TK through 6 on school days and for at least 30 nonschool days during intersession periods for "unduplicated" and dual language learners that can only be provided by the public school system also is a loud message that only public schools meet the needs of families, all families.

What is wrong with this picture? If you lived in another state, maybe nothing. But in California where each county is so different from each other, where we encompass dense urban areas to sparse rural areas difficult to travel, and where we truly are a melting pot of so many rich languages, cultures and beliefs it is concerning that laws have been signed to only recognize a singular delivery model. Another part of this issue, and this is a real head scratcher, is that billions of dollars were taken out of the General Fund (GF) earmarked for child care and gifted to the Proposition 98 public schools system when if you look back on the last couple of years, the schools did not use their existing monies earmarked for providing TK and it was returned. So instead of really opening up a conversation that brought all public and private interests to the table, what was pushed through was a showering of millions of more dollars to public schools to provide TK aimed at changing the past.

Legislators are coming back today to complete their final weeks of this legislative cycle. However, from now until January, it is imperative to have a conversation wherein we can put some safeguards in place to support public private partnerships targeted to meeting the needs of not only children but families. If California truly wants to ensure that all children have fair and equal access to before and after school care and access to TK, then let's commit to go back and get it right.