APRIL 08, 2014Plan would use vouchers to expand, restructure child care
(Calif.) The state should abandoned its cumbersome delivery and funding system for child care services and replace it with one utilizing vouchers, according to a proposal offered by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst.
In addition to improving access to services, the LAO said its restructuring plan would also provide all families a similar level of provider choice. They are also recommending that the Legislature adopt requirements that all child care meet developmentally appropriate standards.
Battered by the economic downturn that prompted cuts in state support of nearly $1 billion between 2009 and 2012, child care providers in the state nevertheless receive about $2 billion a year in state and federal funding and serve about 300,000 children.
In California, eligibility for subsidized child care is limited to families with income below 70 percent of the state median income; where both parents are working; and where the children are under the age of 13.
The child care program is distinct from two other early learning services – state preschool and transitional kindergarten. LEAs are the most common provider of state preschool, although child care centers can also offer the service.
State preschool is aimed at four-year-olds although some programs may include younger children
RESIST! LABOR, STUDENT ACTIVISM, WORKER RIGHTS AND JOBS
By Rebecca Burns, www.inthesetimes.com
April 8th, 2014
By Rebecca Burns, www.inthesetimes.com
April 8th, 2014
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A system-wide strike by graduate assistants at the University of California commenced yesterday with what their union calls an ugly irony. The work stoppage, staged in protest of past alleged attempts by UC to intimidate graduate workers for labor organizing, was quickly met with what workers say was a further attempt at intimidation: The arrest of 20 students at UC Santa Cruz who were picketing early Wednesday morning.
As Working In These Times has reported previously, graduate assistants are one of several groups of workers who have been locked in intensifying labor battles with the UC system, which has been hit hard by nearly $1 billion in budget cuts during the past five years. In November, graduate student workers struck in solidarity with campus service workers, a rare labor action that is prohibited by most union contracts and that was enabled only by the expiration of the UAW’s contract earlier that month. The union says that since then, the university system has engaged in a “pattern of intimidation” against members who participate in labor actions on UC campuses, threatening that striking could result in loss of jobs and even, for foreign students, loss of visas.
The United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2865, which represents 12,000 UC academic student employees, announced last month that it would stage a two-day strike on April 2 and 3 over allegations of unfair labor practices (ULP) by the university. After graduate assistants at
