Child care providers and educators demand state’s budget

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell and child care providers met Thursday afternoon at the Para Los Niños Family Learning Complex in Downtown Los Angeles to urge legislators to pass a responsible budget that does not make deeper cuts to education.

“I want to call upon the governor and the legislature to engage in round the clock negotiations and maintain the legislative support for child care funding and the Cal Works programs that the majority and the legislature are strongly committed to. Working parents and children and all Californians deserve a budget that invests in the future,” says O’Connell.

None of California's schools, including state universities, community colleges, K-12 schools and charter schools, have been reimbursed by the state. Since October 1, Para Los Niños Charter School has been operating without $4.7 million owed to them by the state - funds that cannot be received until the budget is approved.

Chancellor of California Community Colleges Jack Scott says that some college campuses have been forced into cutting sections of classes by up to twenty-percent. Some campuses are even turning away new high school graduates and the unemployed, simply because they cannot accommodate them.

O'Connell adds that many programs vital to children's education like preschool and after-school programs are at risk too. Tanya McMillan, a licensed child care provider based in Bellflower, agrees.

“Because of this budget delay I have been forced to give letters out to my parents to inform them that if the budget isn't signed, I am going to have to shut my doors,” says McMillan.

A poll released by the Field Poll Research Corporation on Tuesday shows that voter approval of California's legislature is at its lowest in 27 years. Eighty-percent of survey respondents disapprove of the job state legislators have been doing, while only ten-percent approve of their work so far.