Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a nine-figure funding package Friday that will expand child care access to some 200,000 more children over the next five years while also increasing state funding for child care and preschool providers.
The funding package, Assembly Bill 131, will allocate $579 million to make more than 145,000 new child care slots available by next year and a total of 200,000 new slots by 2026.
The state will also waive fees for families using subsidized child care and preschool programs, use $40 million in one-time funding to hire and train more child care providers and disperse up to $250 million in grants to build and renovate child care facilities across the state.
“The reality at the end of the day is this is about economic development,” Newsom said during a virtual signing ceremony with legislative and child care leaders.
“This is about fundamental infrastructure, the human capital that’s as important as roads and bridges and broadband and all the other things that are now being debated,” he said.
Newsom credited the state legislature’s Women’s Caucus for their efforts to expand child care in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
State Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Oakland, noted that women left their jobs at a higher rate than men during the pandemic, many of whom did so to take care of their children.
“If we’re going to build back our economy and help those families — those parents and mothers — get back to work, we have to have what’s in this bill,” Skinner said.
In addition to the funding to expand child care access, AB 131 represents the first collective bargaining agreement that child care workers have negotiated with the state since 2019, when Newsom signed a bill allowing child care workers to join a union.
Child Care Providers United now represents some 40,000 child care providers across the state and Newsom’s signature on AB 131 ratified the union’s tentative agreement with the state.
“We know that access to affordable, quality child care will be essential to the economic recovery from COVID-19, and we applaud Gov. Newsom and state legislators for making sure California has funding to support making our child care system the best in the country,” Miren Algorri, a San Diego child care provider and a CCPU negotiator, said in a statement.
The results of the ratification vote among the CCPU’s rank-and-file members will be made public Monday.
Concerning, I feel there is a shortage of qualified workers in that field already. Free childcare would certainly test it. I know of daycare centers in San Francisco where parents are paying over $3000 per child per month. College is cheaper.
a portion of the funds are specifically for finding and training new childcare workers
No one but my wife and I paid for our child care while we both worked full time.To many bleeding hearts and free money today.Won’t be long and there will be enough money to just stay home for free.Free medical food insurance and housing.This state has gone to hell.
We paid for our own childcare and limited our family to one child because we simply could not afford another. And then we paid for private school because MDUSD is a failed institution. We finally left California (Kleptofornica) because it is a failed state. The only way out of this mess is to cut the Gordian Knot and leave.
They keep adding more and more things like this burning up the tax payers money, so they have to raise more money by raising more taxs that causes more couples both having to work to afford it causing more in day care and destroying family time and kids not getting the early nurturing of having a at home parent. But he’ll there politicians they think they know it all and what’s best. We need to dump them all
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More taxpayer-funded welfare.
.
Will it ever end?
“IF YOU CAN NOT AFFORD THEM — DO NOT HAVE THEM”
Said no illegal alien ever.
This is why CA demographics are what they are.
“Cradle to grave” is the endgame
The tax and spend Dems are going to crash and burn big time in the next recession. Stop electing these financially illiterate morons!!!
Get more time to indoctrinate our kids with that critical race garbage.
Whether this is a good idea or not, I must protest this new left-speak fashion of calling anything you want funded “infrastructure”. Education, child care, mental health services, those things are all fine, but they are not infrastructure. Words matter. Language matters. And no, that’s not a snarky reference to Black Lives Matter. BLM is referential to people like me saying things like “words matter” since a looong time ago.
Infrastructure is roads, bridges, and utilities. The things that a society needs to function REGARDLESS of its political and social structure. You can call child care “social spending”, and there’s nothing wrong with that. If you think we need to increase social spending, then make that argument. Please don’t miscategorize it as “infrastructure”.
My thoughts exactly. More bait and switch and double speak. They never tell it as it is.
Uh, don’t have kids if you can’t afford them? If you can’t provide them breakfast or lunch and rely on the schools, if you can’t work because child care is so high, did you not take this into consideration when deciding to be a parent? Set a good example for your kids, prepare to have them, care for them, educate them without government assistance.
Mika – thank you.
If nothing else, COVID-19 should have taught us that parents should be in charge of their children’s education. Not government. Not unions, an extension of government. Sheesh, will we ever learn?
So I have a question. All this money that is being used in the last few months instead of doing it over the last few years. Is he doing this to try to save his job or is he doing this because he feels like he might lose it and trying to screw people over for the taxes? Because this really is concerning. I know the state had money but so many problems he’s trying to solve right now. This could have been done over the last 5 years instead of everything happening all at once.
To those saying they shouldn’t do this, people need to work to provide for their families blah blah blah. I work in education and with teachers, we can not or barely can afford decent childcare we don’t have the option to be picky we usually have to take the cheapest option which isn’t always the best option, oh and we have jobs and would love to pay for childcare but can’t!
Jen , you are a perfect example of the problem in this state . You choose your profession and you chose to have children and then you expect everybody else to to pay to make your life easier or happier .These programs will never end they just grow and grow .Your children will be paying a big chunk of their paycheck to the government to pay for the spending of this governor .
@ Jen
You can’t care for your child? Then why did you have children? I’d love a new Cadillac Ctsv and I’m sure I could finance one but in the end I know I couldn’t afford it so I drive a 20 year old car with over 200k on the clock. I’m willing to bet the car you drive every day is much newer than mine, yet you want me to help pay for your childcare.
I go to work everyday to a thankless job and work as many hours as needed to provide for my family because they are MY responsibility and no one else. I drive a beater car because that’s what I can afford after all MY bills are paid.
If I make a poor decision and purchase that new Cadillac can I count on you and your like minded friends to make the payment when I have over extended my finances for the month? Please say yes!
Teachers make six figures plus in this region, just Google acalanes school salaries and read the article. They’re all rolling in dough, working a very easy job that only requires 9 months work, and they all proved what absolute cowards they are during covid when they refused to work in person while essential workers everywhere soldiered on. Cowards.
Make it universal. I’ll pay for that.
This problem could be solved for nickels, every child bearing woman puts a nickel between her knees and holds it there. STOP HAVING CHILDREN YOU CAN’T AFFORD. Children are not a right, they are a responsibility.
The state has a one time budget surplus. Rather than pay down debt and fully fund pension funds and fix actual infrastructure, or better yet lower taxes , Gavin bin Lyin is creating more spending obligations. When the surplus disappears, then what? Yet more tax increases? Or cut important programs to save his pets?
To Jen Get a second or third job.You shouldn’t have a family if you can’t pay your way.I’m tired of paying your way with my tax dollars.We did it on our own now it’s your turn.
You boomers outsourced the industries and made it impossible for the working poor to afford even a modest home. An incompetent boomer who flunked out of highschool could sell laserdisc players 40 hours a week and afford a home, 3 cars, 3 kids, and his wife could stay at home. The economic situation the boomers have wrought is a nightmare.
It’s getting more expensive to buy votes. Lucky for us our friends in China are standing by, always ready to assist democrats in financing our economic collapse.
Well done, governor.
Look for more vote purchasing between now and September 14th. Newsom will also have a large crew to ballot harvest every single one of those homeless hotels, then they’ll go after the tent cities, and the deceased still on the voter rolls. He knows he’s in trouble and will leave nothing to chance.
Unfortunately, I believe Gruesome will remain as governor. Washington financed his campaign and there are just too many stupid voters in California.
Child care or child indoctrination?
My guess is the latter.
Just like McDonald’s,
Hook them young and keep them for life.
Communism 101.
And both are bad for your health…McDonald’s is just more enjoyable.
Gavin just bribed the union again.