Media Advisory
Contact: Sam Shaw – (661) 321-4173
Prominent Bay Area Women Leaders to Governor:
“You Used to Care about Our Children. What has Changed?”
Following an open-letter to Governor Brown that will run as a full page ad in the Sacramento Bee on Tuesday (see below), local women leaders will come together to highlight the value of family child care and its significant impact on education and the California economy.
WHAT: Women leaders will stand alongside child care providers, the parents and children they serve to ask Governor Brown to sign AB 101, a bill that will fix the state’s broken child care system. They are calling on the Governor to recommit his pledge to early childhood programs, like family child care, that many working Californians rely on.
Scores of women leaders statewide have signed onto a letter that will appear as a full-page ad in the Sacramento Bee that morning. The letter calls on Governor Brown to do the right thing and support jobs, by supporting the women that enable California’s to go to work and prepare children for school: child care providers.
WHY: As mayor of Oakland, Governor Brown proudly supported education, including opening the Oakland School for the Arts. Despite the vital role that family child care providers play in preparing children for school and enabling parents to go to work, it’s not clear that he will support AB 101 to fix California’s broken child care system.
During this down economy, thousands of child care providers are closing their doors every year at a time when 200,000 families struggling to get back to work are on child care waiting lists. Providers are leaving the child care business in large part due to serious problems that must be addressed and the fact that providers currently do not have a voice in their industry to help fix those problems.
Problems include inconsistent licensing requirements, the absence of payday policies which result in months-late reimbursements to providers, lack of standardized training opportunities, and poor communication of program changes. Across the state, child care providers have gone months without pay.
WHO: Local leaders and child care providers whose home-based centers are struggling to stay open and the parents and children they serve.
WHERE: ***VENUE CHANGE***
Oakland School for the Arts (Outside)
530 18th St., Oakland, CA 94612
WHEN: Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011 **RAIN OR SHINE**
11 a.m. – Noon – Press Conference
VISUALS: Women leaders, child care providers, parents, and children holding a press conference. Banners and podium signage.
