California Considers Cutting Child Care Assistance for 62,000 Children

With California facing a $9.2 billion budget gap, programs that provide critical supports for children and families are at risk of major cuts. Governor Jerry Brown has proposed to reduce funding for child care and development programs by $517 million (28 percent), eliminating 62,000 children from these programs.

The proposed cuts would come on top of the significant cuts to child care and development programs the state has made over the past few years and exacerbate existing gaps.

Funding for child care and development programs has been reduced by nearly $1 billion since 2008, which has resulted in 100,000 fewer children able to participate in these programs. Nearly 190,000 children are already on the state's waiting list for child care assistance. In addition, California made its previously refundable child and dependent care tax credit nonrefundable as of Tax Year 2011, cutting tax assistance for low- and moderate-income families with child care expenses by more than two-thirds.

Under the proposed funding cuts, the income eligibility limit for child care assistance would be reduced from 70 percent of state median income ($42,216 a year for a family of three) to 200 percent of the federal poverty level ($38,180 a year for a family of three). In addition, parents not working a required number of hours would lose child care assistance. Parents would also no longer be able to receive child care assistance to attend higher education programs beyond 12 months of vocational education — which could prevent them from gaining the advanced skills they need for stable, good-paying jobs.

The proposal would also affect children's access to high-quality care. Reimbursement rates for child care providers serving families receiving child care assistance would be reduced — depriving providers of the resources they need to support high-quality care and discouraging high-quality providers from serving families receiving assistance. The administration of several child care and development programs would be shifted from the Department of Education and local contractors to the Department of Social Services and county welfare departments by 2013-14; as part of this shift, contracts with early learning programs that include educational standards would be replaced with contracts that have no such standards, thereby eliminating an important guarantee of quality.

The cuts would have serious consequences for families struggling to get on their feet and trying to ensure a strong early start for their children. Child care assistance helps families afford the safe, stable care that parents need to get and keep a job and that children need for their healthy development. Without this assistance, parents will be less likely work, have more difficulty paying their bills, and be less able to afford good-quality care for their children. It's not too late for the state to reject this approach to balancing the budget, which would jeopardize the well-being of children and families, and ultimately the state's economy.