Senator Nancy Skinner and Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry will stand with dozens of providers and parents as they rally to support the legislature’s budget proposal and call on the Administration to keep their promise to child care providers and working families.
SACRAMENTO, CA – Representing 40,000 child care providers who care for children in state subsidized programs, Child Care Providers United (CCPU) members will lead a candlelight vigil alongside Parent Voices members and leaders of the Legislative Women’s Caucus on the West Steps of the State Capitol in Sacramento on Tuesday night as the final details of the state budget three party agreement are negotiated.
California’s child care workforce, made up of a majority Black and Brown women, takes home an average of $7-10 an hour if they take home anything at all. Providers, parents, and legislative leaders all agree: In the fifth largest economy in the world, poverty wages for the workforce providing high quality early learning for the next generation of Golden State leaders cannot be normalized or accepted.
WHAT:
Candlelight vigil calling on the Administration and legislators to maintain and build on commitments that meet providers’ demands for fair pay and more subsidized child care spaces for families
WHO:
- Senator Nancy Skinner – Chair, Legislative Women’s Caucus
- Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry – Vice Chair, Legislative Women’s Caucus
- Family child care providers with Child Care Providers United
- Parent Voices parents and children
- Sacramento faith leaders
- Child care advocates
WHEN:
Tuesday, June 11 at 8:00pm
LOCATION:
California State Capitol, West Steps
VISUALS: Dozens of child care providers joined by legislators, parents, and children holding battery-powered candles; providers singing and sharing their stories.
Background:
Governor Newsom’s administration and state legislators committed in providers’ contracts in 2021 and 2023 to revamping the way child care providers are paid, moving away from poverty pay rates to a structure that values child care providers and covers the the full cost of providing quality child care, from nutritious food and internet needed for students to complete homework, to time spent driving, cleaning, and teaching.
The Administration’s budget proposal called for an indefinite pause of progress towards the 200,000 slots promised, including the clawback of thousands of slots already awarded. The Legislative budget proposal rejected the pause, immediately implementing 11,000 slots and proposing to codify the commitment to the 200,000 previously announced slots. The same proposal also calls for a trailer bill to ensure timely implementation of rate reform in 2025.
Providers and parents are calling on state leaders to support the legislature’s budget proposal and keep their promise for fair pay for child care providers in the state budget as well as their promise to working families to increase access to affordable, quality child care through additional slots in the state subsidy program.
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Child Care Providers United brings together 40,000 family child care providers across California and is a partnership of SEIU Local 99, SEIU Local 521 and UDW/AFSCME Local 3930.
