Since California is the nation’s biggest state, when its policymakers consider major child care cuts it is worth watching. This year California is weighing proposals that would cut hundreds of millions of dollars from early learning programs and eliminate thousands of child care spaces, a group reports.

In his budget plan, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed cutting 18,000 child care spaces in the CalWORKS program for lower-income families, First 5 LA said in a budget analysis released this week.

If a family could not get or lost one of these child care spaces they could face another obstacle because “the Legislative Analyst's Office points out that roughly 200,000 children are already on waiting lists for non-CalWORKs slots, so those families displaced by the proposed elimination of Stage 3 slots would likely find it difficult to find other options,” the advocacy group said.

The budget plan would also reduce reimbursement rates for licensed and license-exempt providers, according to the analysis.

Now, California faces a huge budget deficit, but First 5 LA makes the point that struggling parents will have a harder time getting back to work if they can’t find quality affordable child care. More working moms and dads would help the economy and hopefully reduce the budget deficit.

“CalWORKs parents who have lost their state-funded child care may also be forced to choose between working or attending school, and staying at home to care for their children. In the worst case scenario, they may decide to leave their children in substandard care,” First 5 LA said in its budget analysis.

Health Care Dollars in Jeopardy in Washington: Now that President Barack Obama has signed health care reform into law, The Children’s Alliance reminds us it is Cover the Uninsured Week in Washington State and that hundreds of thousands of dollars are at stake.

“Yet the state Senate’s budget proposal calls for a complete elimination of funding for Apple Health for Kids outreach.”
“If the state’s $425,000 outreach investment is cut, we’ll lose an equal amount of federal matching dollars, which would severely limit outreach organizations’ ability to find eligible families and connect children to Apple Health for Kids.” – Cover the Uninsured Week – and crunch time for Apple Health for Kids outreach, Children’s Alliance, 3/22/10.

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