State Schools Chief Jack O'Connell Details Worsening Ripple
Effects of Governor's Veto of CalWORKS Stage 3 Program
OAKLAND — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell held a news conference today with parents at risk of losing their jobs, to criticize Governor Schwarzenegger's line-item veto of funding for child care services to help struggling parents who have successfully left welfare and are gainfully employed. O'Connell noted that the Governor's veto earlier this month of $256 million for CalWORKS Stage 3 program funding will have far-reaching effects that stretch beyond the loss of child care for struggling families.
"We stand at the cusp of a disaster," O'Connell said. "The Governor's veto has set the stage for a cascading set of circumstances that will disrupt struggling parents' employment, eliminate jobs of child care workers, force the closure of child care businesses, cause loss of early learning opportunities for kids, and worsen California's economic downturn."
During the news conference at the Bright Future Early Learning Center in Oakland, O'Connell reported results of a survey conducted by the California Department of Education (CDE) on the number of children in the Bay Area who will lose safe, quality child care as a result of the Governor's veto of the CalWORKS Stage 3 funding:
- Alameda County — 1,759 children;
- Contra Costa County — 1,539 children;
- San Francisco County — 1,068 children; and
- Santa Clara County — 2,688 children.
O'Connell chastised the Governor and his staff for telling panicked families who will lose child care services at the end of this month that there are plenty of other state-funded child care programs available. In fact, more than 187,000 children are already on long waiting lists for child care services. The Governor's veto added 54,000 more names to the waiting list — a nearly 30 percent increase. Each month, an additional 1,500 names will be added to the list of those children who would have moved into Stage 3 from Stage 2. Under CalWORKS, a family usually progresses from Stage 1 to Stage 3 as their employment situation stabilizes and working parents need help to cover the prohibitively high cost of child care in order to go to work and remain off public aid.
"The Governor's veto is turning out to be a job reduction act at a time when California's unemployment rate is at a near-record high 12.4 percent," O'Connell noted.
"He gave working families just three weeks notice before child care services are cut off, forcing parents to choose between safe, quality care for their children, and losing their jobs or seeing a reduction of hours and salary. The veto is also forcing child care businesses to lay off child care providers, and in some cases, close their doors."
California's subsidized child care system generates more than 130,000 related jobs, according to a study released by the Berkeley Center on Health, Economic & Family Security entitled, Cutting Child Care Out from Under Californians. As a result of the Governor's veto, many of these jobs will be gone and the places where they work will be closed down. This will put more people on the unemployment rolls, and deprive young children of early learning opportunities at these child care facilities.
For the Berkeley report, please visit Cutting Child Care Out from Under Californians (Outside Source; PDF; 445KB; 16pp.). For information on the benefit of early learning opportunities, go to Preschool for All - State of Education.
