Child Care / Early Learning

Family Child Care Providers Gain a Voice in Massachusetts

2012-11-16T22:33:11Z

Every day, tens of thousands of working families rely on family child care providers to care for and to educate their young children in a safe, home-based environment. After eight years of campaigning for dignity and respect for their work, family child care providers now have a voice in Massachusetts's early childhood education.

Last week, family child care providers delivered over 1,900 union authorization cards to the Massachusetts Division of Labor Relations (DLR) for certification. On Wednesday, the DLR certified SEIU Local 509 as the official bargaining representative of 3,500 family child care providers in Massachusetts. The certification of these cards makes the 3500 providers one of the largest groups of workers to form a union in recent years.

"We are often the first educators that a child will ever have, it's important that we have a voice in early childhood education in Massachusetts," said Celina Reyes a family child care provider from Lawrence. "We're overjoyed that our union has been officially recognized, and we look forward to working with the Department of Early Education and Care to improve the quality of early childhood education in our state."

In July, Governor Patrick signed HB 3986, An Act Relative to improving quality in early education and care by family child care providers, that granted family child care providers the opportunity to collectively bargain with the state. Since the legislation's passage, providers from Hyannis to Pittsfield have been organizing and working together to build their union of family child care providers.

"Family child care providers are vital to helping working families re-enter or stay in the workforce," said Susan Tousignant, a rehabilitation counselor with the Mass Rehab Commission and president of SEIU Local 509. "We're very happy to welcome them into the SEIU family fighting for good jobs and better communities."

Another Retirement Option for Amparo

2012-10-03T21:40:02Z

Cross-posted from SEIU.org

"I don't see myself retiring anytime soon and I'm probably going to work until I'm 70--if not until I die," said Amparo Moreno, a California child care provider, in an interview about retirement.

Until recently, these were the only retirement options for Moreno and millions of other child care providers who work for years without raises, medical insurance, retirement benefits or even sick days. Now, they have another option.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law Sept. 28 a bill to create the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program, the nation's first state-administered retirement savings program for private-sector workers.

]]> Secure Choice is a voluntary retirement plan with modest, guaranteed benefits for workers who don't have access to an employer-sponsored plan. This plan will act as a supplement to Social Security and will be professionally managed and portable so workers can take their retirement savings from job to job.

This legislation is a huge victory for California where the retirement insecurity faced by working families poses a significant threat to the state's already strained safety net programs.

Nearly half of all middle-income California workers will retire with incomes at or near poverty, according to the University of California-Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. For child care providers and other workers relying solely on Social Security, retirement would mean living below the poverty line. Social Security retirement benefits are less than $1,200 per month for low-income workers.

As a member leader at Service Employees International Union Local 99, Moreno knew what was at stake for her and other child care providers as lawmakers and the governor debated whether to pass Secure Choice. By engaging her network of colleagues and supporters, Moreno worked to educate many on the need for retirement security for private-sector workers. The passage of Secure Choice has given Moreno and millions of workers like her hope for the future. "I can now say that 'retiring in poverty' or 'working until I die,' is no longer my default retirement plan and the possibility of living the American Dream of a secure retirement is a reality."

The plan also sets a new bar and gives a strong nudge to lawmakers around the country. We must address the retirement security crisis looming over America before it's too late. California workers shouldn't be the only ones to have another retirement option.

California Providers Take Action AgainstBroken Child Care System

2012-02-10T18:22:09Z

Eighty local child care providers, parents and children lined the sidewalks and chanted with picket signs to protest mismanagement at the Center for Community and Family Services (CCFS) in Carson, Calif. on Thursday, Jan.12. CCFS did not pay providers in December and is expected to miss January's pay date as well--leaving hundreds of child care providers, parents and children on the breaking point wondering about their futures.

CCFS is just the latest example of how the California child care system is in crisis. Lack of oversight and accountability allows some agencies responsible for managing family child care to get away with outrageous behavior: delayed payments, payments that fall thousands of dollars short and extreme communication failures. The morning of our rally, CCFS closed its doors and turned away everyone who attempted to come inside. Even providers who were arriving during normal business hours to turn in time sheets for completed work were told to go away.

Vanise Valentine, a parent from Lynwood, spoke passionately about how much she relies on her child care provider. Valentine spoke to several reporters present at the scene and also took the megaphone to tell providers how much she supported our fight for respect.

"We're on pins and needles," Valentine told ABC television. "Especially because there's no communication--CCFS hasn't communicated anything to anyone."

Providers held a similar action against CCFS last summer after some had not been paid for three months; several were missing payments that were five months overdue. Some providers at recent rallies have stated that without Child Care Providers United (CCPU), they would have been getting very little information from the agency.

"I finally was successful in getting a mortgage modification that will help me keep my doors open," explained LaShaun Merriman, a Los Angeles provider. "That is until I missed my most recent mortgage payment when my automatic deposit from CCFS didn't hit my bank. Now I'm afraid. Not just of losing my home, but of losing my business. Even if I can find someone kind enough to let me sleep on the couch for a while, no one is going to let me run my business out of their home. I'll be homeless and out of the job I love and the job I'm great at."

After a rally on the sidewalk, providers marched to the CCFS front door. Tonia McMillian, a Bellflower provider, challenged management to come outside and meet with them; no one responded. Providers then wrote notes to management and taped them onto the front door. The only sign of life from the agency was when a CCFS security guard came out and started ripping the notes off the door.

We learned Friday, Jan. 13 the CCFS doors remained closed. There was even a padlock on the door, indicating it was closed for good. The California Department of Education will be working with providers and families to assign them to more reliable local agencies. In the meantime, providers still have not been paid and have not been given a definitive answer as to when they will receive complete payment.

New Report Shows Pre-K Education Is Key to Rising out of Poverty

2012-01-20T21:35:55Z

The American dream of rising from the bottom to the top is actually harder to do in America than in Western European countries. The new international study confirms what working Americans and the Occupy movement have experienced first-hand. In America, the rich are getting richer--and they're passing that advantage on to their children at the expense of everyone else.

The report offers one glimmer of hope: quality preschool education gives children of low-income parents a step up into the middle class.

According to the report's findings, "Preschool exposure can have lasting positive effects....... especially for low- and middle-income children."

SEIU members have lobbied congress, written letters to legislators, and worked to elect leaders who would support early education funding for the past several decades, including efforts during the past two years that have resulted in maintaining recent increases in Head Start funding in the 2012 budget.

"Remember that the country's future depends much on us, the early age educators," said Tami Mendez, a child care provider from Massachusetts. "One of the children in my day care could be the president, or a principal, or a great citizen, husband and father."

As for the sobering news about the challenges of rising out of poverty, SEIU has been waging a "Fight for a Fair Economy" for good jobs for the rest of us.

Unmentioned--and perhaps unexamined in the study--were how union membership and quality job training help low-wage workers move into the middle class.

Child care providers in 16 states have formed unions to address this very issue, and providers in Massachusetts like Tami Mendez are now working through their union to expand child care provider programs.

The full report from Pew's Economic Mobility Project can be found here [pdf.]

A step towards better child and home care in Connecticut

2011-09-22T21:31:07Z

Hartford - Connecticut's seniors, people with disabilities, and young children applauded Governor Dannel P. Malloy yesterday for signing an executive order that will improve the quality and stability of care they receive.

The order, hailed as a first step toward solving workforce shortages, gives family child care providers and personal care attendants (PCAs) the opportunity to create organizations to be their voice in advocating for improvements.

]]> "We play a very important role in the development of the children we care for, which is to get them ready to learn," said Denise Gaston, a licensed child care provider with 30 years of experience. "I'm thrilled that the Governor is helping us gain a voice to stand up for the quality, affordable child care that the parents I serve really need."

In both the home care and child care system, the lack of a focused recruitment, training, and retention strategy has created high turnover and made it difficult to find reliable care. With providers united into organizations that can advocate for quality improvements, it will build a more stable, professional workforce that consumers can better rely on.

The order also creates a consumer-majority Quality Home Care Workforce Council, modeled after those already active in a handful of states including Massachusetts. Its first task is studying ways to improve recruitment, training, and retention of home care PCAs.

"I need more hours of care but they keep cutting the hours," said Imla Eubanks, a home care consumer. "Now, through this council, consumers like me, PCAs, and advocates can sit at a table together and come up with ways to make sure consumers like me get the hours of care we need."

Early education adds 200,000 jobs, $11 billion to California economy

2011-08-08T22:04:35Z

Berkeley - A new study from the University of California, Berkeley, Center for Labor Research and Education finds that the $5.6 billion early childcare and education (ECE) industry supports $11.1 billion in economic output in California.

The study, "Economic Impacts of Early Care and Education in California," by Jenifer MacGillvary and Laurel Lucia, explores the economic effects of the ECE industry in California, which they say benefits the state economy as well as the children who receive care.

]]> MacGillvary and Lucia estimate that spending on ECE supports nearly 200,000 jobs, both direct positions in the early childhood education industry and positions in educational supplies, food, health care, and other industries. State ECE spending results in more than half a billion dollars in state and local tax revenue. Lucia explains, "Every dollar spent on ECE yields $2 in economic output for the California economy, because ECE spending increases demand for suppliers and the businesses where ECE workers and their families shop."

Access to ECE services allows more parents, especially mothers, to work and increases parents' ability to pursue their own education, the researchers say. Parents using paid ECE services in California collectively earn approximately $26.4 billion per year, which translates directly to those parents' purchasing power.

Lucia says, "The child care sector's economic impact rivals that of many industries that traditionally receive economic development dollars from local and state governments." Even so, state funding for ECE was cut in California's current budget--despite the fact that, according to the California Budget Project, state funding met only 60 percent of the need in recent years and there were nearly 200,000 children on waiting lists for state
subsidies.

Dismantling even part of the existing child care infrastructure will stunt California's economic recovery. MacGillvary says, "If the system atrophies during times of economic contraction, like the state is experiencing now, there will be a child care shortage that will impede a speedy workforce mobilization when the economy starts to recover." Lucia adds, "Now, when the state needs a jobs infusion, the early care and education infrastructure cannot be neglected without lasting repercussions for employers, workers, and the state economy."

The full study, "Economic Impacts of Early Care and Education in California" is available online.

Meeting First Lady Michelle Obama

2011-07-07T23:49:05Z

My name is Fabiola Silva and I'm a Child Care Provider in the Germantown Montgomery County area, early one morning, I received a telephone call from SEIU Local 500 my union, I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

Amazingly, I was advised that I was invited to participate in a meeting with First Lady, Michelle Obama. After the call ended, I think that I found myself stunned that this opportunity was presented to me and it really left me with many questions in my mind about what was going to happen during this meeting. I knew that I was extremely excited.

]]> I went to the meeting full of anticipation and excitement at having been granted this
tremendous honor. To me, going into this enormous place and passing through all the
complexities of security screening and state protocol was even more surprising and interesting than I had ever imagined. Just to be in this place where so many of this nations' battles and movements have been waged and won was testimony and demonstrated to me personally, now more than ever before that the slogan: "Yes We Can" is alive in the Centro NIA in Washington, D.C.

The process of meeting so many high placed officials with many titles and offices within the United States Government was completely new to me. Though somewhat bewildering, I felt it was very much a privilege as well as a responsibility.

Rather suddenly, we were given a lot of information by various government officials in rapid succession. After a few moments a woman entered the room where we had been gathered. Without explanation she asked us to follow her to our seats which were located in the center of the front row of the auditorium. Nervously and anxiously, we spoke to officials about our experiences in working with children. Mr. Richardson and I were so nervous we could barely maintain our composure! Then, a few minutes more passed and we were then told to follow an official to yet another meeting room.

In this room were seated 12 high-ranking officials from various government agencies. Once we were ushered into this room, we were told that we would be waiting there for an official photo opportunity with The First Lady. Photos were taken, whereupon we were again escorted back to front row center seats we were shown in the original auditorium.

After a brief wait, Mrs. Obama entered the room. The First Lady explained that the present
incidence of childhood obesity and the related increase in the numbers of young people
now living with juvenile onset diabetes is of immense concern to her personally as well as to health and government officials all across the United States. Mrs. Obama emphasized that this situation has very serious long-term public health implications as well as tremendous impact on quality of life for all Americans both today and on into the future.

Mrs. Obama told us gathered there with her that as child care professionals, we hold a front line position in her initiative called "Let's Move!" Therefore, during this meeting Mrs. Obama urged all of us present to join with her in an effort to get young people to be more physically active and live healthier lives through the program being launched as "Let's Move!"

In actuality, there are many basic, simple, and cost effective steps parents and child care workers can take to encourage young people to eat healthier diets, to get more physical exercise, and generally lead more active, healthy lives as daily routine. We must encourage children to eat more fruits and vegetables as well as drink greater quantities of water or natural, non-sweetened, fruit juices. Sodas and highly sweetened drinks should be monitored, limited, and or eliminated entirely from children's daily diets.

Definitely, children should be strongly encouraged to go outside to run and to play when possible. Children can be as physically active as they wish. This activity consumes calories, increases blood circulation and is essential for the growth of all body tissues and systems. Spending more time being engaged in physical activities, and less time in front of a television or video game monitor is a great idea.

Breast feeding is another way to naturally ensure complete nutrition as well as necessary hormonal and immunological factors to babies. Breast milk feeding via various methods should be encouraged whenever possible. Breast feeding can give both mother and child some time to take a break, and spend quality time together.

As child care specialists, we strongly support The First Lady, Michelle Obama, and the program, "Let's Move!"

If you'd like to join us in our crusade for happier, healthier, vital, and fit, young Americans you can. Please log on to the internet and visit the official website: www.letsmove.gov. Fill out the information requested and subscribe to the newsletter in order to participate as a group with interested persons located all across our nation.

Thank you very much and please pass this message along!

Child care changed this family's life for the better

2010-12-02T23:10:16Z

Nancy Rios and Ramon Salazar, who both work at a Panda Express restaurant, used to have a hard time coming up with the $250-300 a week that it costs to have a babysitter watch their three children in Oxnard, CA.

Then someone told Rios and Salazar that they could apply for the CalWorks child care program for low-income working families. Through CalWorks, caring for their children isn't only more affordable, but they both agreed that it made an immediate, positive difference in their children's lives, one they could see in only three months.

"They call it a school," Salazar said. "They have all the things a preschool would have."

"They've been speaking more clearly, too," Rios said, attributing the children's improved language skills to their interaction with the other kids.

]]> And that hasn't been the only big change. "It was really hard for us to potty train our oldest son, but she did it," said Salazar, referring to the family's child care provider, Leonor Fernandez. "She really helped us with that."

"Though they're still in a home," Rios added. "As soon as I saw her house and the environment, I loved it. They love it. It's really good practice for them for when they go to school. Also, we work late and we have 24 hour care now."

The couple explained that Fernandez took the children home in the evenings, even putting them to bed after a few activities designed to tire them out.

"We used to have to pick them up late. We get off at midnight," Salazar said, "and we'd sometimes notice that they'd get sniffles the next day from walking them out in the cold."

"Everything's just been changed for the better," Salazar said.

Ensure the Rios-Salazar family continues to get quality child care, click here to support federal funding for early education in the states.

Rochester Head Start Workers Vote To Join Local 200United

2010-11-19T08:30:40Z

On Monday, November 15, 203 workers at the Head Start program at Action for a Better Community (ABC) voted in an overwhelming majority to join with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 200United.

The workers started forming their Union in September as a way to both improve classroom conditions for the children they serve as well as working conditions for themselves. Regina Brown, a Teacher Assistant, said, "We deserve what is best for us so that we can do the best for the children we serve."

The vote as counted by the National Labor Relations Board was 127 for SEIU to 49 for No Union.

Kelvin Jones, a teacher assistant, echoed the sentiment of his coworkers before the election: "I have been employed for twenty years and have always just had to accept whatever changes management made. No longer do I want to let others make decisions that affect my life. I want a voice, it's time for change!"

Head Start teachers at ABC help approximately 1,500 children from infants to four years of age develop reading and math skills to be successful in grade-school. They lead programs at five centers (1772 Clifford Avenue, 1150 Hudson Avenue, 640 Jefferson Avenue, 700 North Street and 49 Stone Street). Home visitors reach out to families in Monroe and Ontario Counties.

Teachers, teacher assistants, childcare assistants, family developers, parent advocates, health intake specialists, nurse, substitutes, cooks, and cook assistants at ABC are all now members of SEIU.

Photo, from left to right: Ana Marzan, Estella Lundy, Clementina Cintron

A Friendly Child Care

2010-11-19T06:04:43Z

Gloria Clemens had been a nurse for 12 years and liked her job in a pediatrician's office. She was also the mother of six, with a seventh child on the way.

Clemens liked her job but couldn't afford the child care that would have let her keep it. So 24 years ago, she started a family child care business in her own home that meets the needs of other working families.

Still going strong, she and her two aides work 10 hour days caring for 11 children.

Setting An Example

Clemens serves a range of families, and watches three children whose mother, Anna*, qualifies for state assistance with child care while she's going to school. She said the program, CalWorks, was good because it helped parents become self-reliant and set a good example for their children.
]]> Anna's children used to cry when she left them, but Clemens said she gradually encouraged them to say goodbye and tell her they were proud of her, instead. "Anna didn't even graduate high school," Clemens said, "so she started way, way back."

"We were both jumping up and down," Clemens said, "when she got her high school equivalency. Now she needs to go farther, so she can support her kids."

Right now though, Clemens said, even when parents get to a point where they're working at a $12 per hour job, they still can't afford the child care their families need if they don't have some help.

A Good Space For Kids

Gloria Clemens' Kid Tip: I love dancing and music. I think that's a stress reliever. So when they feel bad, we tell them to sing one of their favorite songs.

When I see a kid who's had a bad day and see them singing, I ask if that made them feel better. They say yes, then we can usually talk about it.

"My house is not luxurious," Clemens said, but it has "everything to make life more pleasant for [the children.]" In addition to supplies to help with physical and emotional development, she said they needed "furniture that's their size, so they feel comfortable and don't get aches and pains."

"I spend more money on their furniture than on my house," Clemens added, explaining that she thought the children's needs should always come first.

The children seem to have picked up on Clemens' attitude, extending the same thoughtfulness to each other. When a child is unhappy or crying, she said, "the other children will always give them a hug and tell them they'll take care of them."

"Or, one boy sometimes gets in a bad mood, he'll say, 'I'm not your friend,'" Clemens said. "Then the other kids all say to him, 'but we're all friends here.'"

And that's how it goes, with everyone at Clemens' child care looking after each other.

Photo: From left to right, R. Maggie Lopez, Susan Austin and Gloria Clemens at the October 26th rally in Long Beach, where family child care providers demonstrated in front of the Women's Conference to ask Governor Schwarzenegger to extend Stage 3 child care funding. The cuts have been halted by a judge through the end of the year.

* Name changed for privacy.

Allowance and Chores

2010-11-08T19:05:20Z

Video from ABC Action News, Tampa Bay, FL:

Child care keeps families working in California

2010-11-05T16:58:26Z

A family child care provider for 13 years, Susan Austin cares for 8 children whose attendance is supported by the Stage 3 child care threatened by Gov. Schwarzenegger's veto. A single mother who was on public assistance herself 40 years ago, all of Austin's clients are single mothers who are also working their way to independence.

Though if the program closes entirely, Austin says, "I will have no business. I tried to work with my parents to try to keep a roof over my head, but they couldn't afford it." All she has now, she said, "is my home and my dignity."

But Austin doesn't think of her child care as a job, but a career and a lifestyle. She says her reward is "when kids graduate college. When I take a parent from living in a car with two little kids, to getting on public assistance, to working, to her son serving two terms in Iraq."

Then there's something else Austin has; plenty of stories about the families she works with, takes care of and clearly worries for. Families like Monica's*, a single mom who's had her three children in Austin's care for some time now.
]]> Austin has watched Monica's children for 7 years. Because Monica had been earning more at her current job in medical billing, Austin thought she was doing well and expected the family to be off the program within a year.

Then Austin had to tell Monica about the end of the Stage 3 program.

"She just fell apart," Austin said. "She was just saying, 'What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?' Within days of me telling her, she was at the heart specialist and they were telling her she'd gone down hill."

Austin explained that Monica had suffered a heart attack four years earlier, brought on by the birth of her youngest child. Monica's doctors have been concerned that she might follow her mother, who'd died early of heart failure. But the news about losing access to child care may have been too much to take.

"She's in the hospital for heart surgery right now," Austin said tearfully, "and I'm taking care of her kids for free."

Another of Austin's charges is a 2 1/2 year old whose mother is in college. Austin explained that she was trying to get her master's degree because she couldn't get a job with a B.A., and needed child care while she was in school.

Austin, whose own adult daughter can't find a job in Orange County, CA, even with dual High School teaching credentials in English and music, is sympathetic.

And several of Austin's clients depend on her for help they can't get elsewhere. "Many of the children stay with me because they have behavioral issues no one else wants to take care of," she said.

"I have a boy who came to me three years ago. He has ADHD, he was kicking and biting me at first," Austin said. "Now he's in the 6th grade and he's no longer in the principal's office all the time, because he had stable, consistent care." Though if the Stage 3 program closes and his mother keeps her job, Austin worries that he might have to stay by himself after school with a younger sister who's in 2nd grade.

Susan Austin, on caring for children with ADHD:
Be patient. It's not going to turn around over night. You need a lot of communication between parents and providers to establish consistency and structure.

The children need consistent, positive reinforcement. You should always have a calm, caring tone, even when they're kicking you.

You've got to give the kids who have these issues a double dose of love, establish trust and respect with them so they know they can count on you.

"Child care is different than being on aid," Austin said, "you don't get it unless you work. These people have to work or they wouldn't get care. So we're getting them out and working, encouraging them to work. Taking it away takes away our jobs, takes away their jobs, takes away the safety and health of the children."

"California's primary workforce is 20-40, that's the child bearing age," Austin said. "Child care keeps families working in California."

"We live in this beautiful place where the whole world wants to come for vacation and we're turning it into a desert, ... devoid of hope and future," Austin said. "These are hard working people who just need a little support. We're destroying the American Dream for our youth."

"The only thing keeping me going is my faith," Austin said. "I believe He'll have the last word and it will be good. He's always looked after me before, He will again, and these children and their families."

Photo: From left to right, R. Maggie Lopez, Susan Austin and Gloria Clemens at the October 26th rally in Long Beach, where family child care providers demonstrated in front of the Women's Conference to ask Governor Schwarzenegger to extend Stage 3 child care funding. The cuts have been halted by a judge through this week.

* Name changed for privacy.

A Safe Environment Threatened By Funding Cuts

2010-11-04T16:52:14Z

A family child care provider for 6 years, Laurie Sanders of Los Angeles, CA, has "a passion for kids [and] wanted to see them in a safe environment."

Sanders, on providing good early care: "Have a daily schedule that's consistent. It helps children know what comes next and easily transition from one activity to the next."

Sanders is a former welfare recipient whose daughter got hurt while in the care of a relative. She decided to open her own child care business to keep her kids safe, and to provide that same level of care for other people's children, as well.

Right now, Sanders cares for 14 children, all long-term clients, from five months to nine years of age. Eight of those children are supported by Stage 3 funding, which could soon be lost. This would be a blow to both Sanders' business and the families who depend on it.

Sanders' advice for new parents: "Spend quality time with them, even for an hour or two. That Mommy and Me time. Kids really do need that. And I tell them to always praise their children."

"All of my parents are single mothers," Sanders said. "All of their problems so far that I've noticed are financial and transportation issues. Providing food is often an issue."

To make up for the food their mothers can't always afford, Sanders partners with the Korean American Food Service program. Depending on need and their parents' work schedules, she provides breakfast, two snacks, lunch, and occasionally dinner, for children who are with her between 8-13 hours per day.

Sanders attended the October 26th rally in Long Beach to ask Governor Schwarzenegger to extend Stage 3 child care funding. The cuts have been halted by a judge through this week.

Photo, from left to right: Laurie Sanders, Elysha Johnson and Destiny Jackson at the Long Beach rally.

"The political moment won't wait for us."

2010-11-02T18:01:33Z

Last Tuesday, Southern California family child care providers with CCPU rallied in front of the Women's Conference, held by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California's first lady, Maria Shriver, to protest the governor's veto of Stage 3 child care funding for over 60,000 children. Stage 3 child care assistance is available to low-income families where the parents work and aren't receiving other public assistance. Attendees hoped their presence would encourage the governor to restore funding through the end of his term.

The next day, I spoke to rally attendees Tonia McMillian and Socorro Avitia at the SEIU offices in Los Angeles about the rally and their advocacy for child care providers and the families they serve. McMillian and Avitia then spent the evening calling fellow family child care providers to ask them to continue their political participation by volunteering in get out the vote efforts before Tuesday's elections. They hope the next governor will continue the program in years to come.

The rally was "awesome," McMillian said. "Every time I have an opportunity to get together with providers, I'm excited."

She continued her advocacy beyond the rally, McMillian said, because "there are so many more who have a voice on the phone. I want to find a way to bring them out of the shadows. I know some of them feel intimidated. I know they're worried that if they complain, some networks will drop them, and some have."

McMillian also underlined how important working to protect Stage 3 funding is to the families they serve. Cutting it, she said, "takes children out of safe, educational environments. It cuts at the families who are working, who get no cash assistance and who pay a family fee towards their child care. It just makes no sense."

Avitia expressed the same sense of urgency and concern over the outcome of the governor's race.

"If you want to buy a dress, you can wait a week, a month. For the election, we only have this weekend," Avitia said. "And if we don't get Jerry Brown in office, we might not even have a daycare anymore. The political moment won't wait for us. You have to act when the moment comes."

"People think if they vote for somebody's promises, they can go home, sit and wait and it'll happen. But I see now that we have to be there," Avitia said. "Sooner or later, we have to do this for ourselves. You can't wait for everything to be coming to you from someone else."

Avitia talked about how working with the union had prepared her to advocate for what she wanted in all stages of the political process, everything from attending a rally, to the phonebanking she did that night, to meeting with government officials in the state capital. She said she felt that she'd grown a lot as a person by working with the union, both politically and personally.

"If our organizer, and I see her like my daughter, didn't push me," Avitia said, "I wouldn't do anything. She tells me I have to go to Sacramento [to meet with state legislators.] I ask who's going to be with me. She says I'm going to be alone. And maybe I don't do the best job, but I learn. I feel like I've done something for others. I can count on them for support."

Avitia said she her political work with the union had also given her better tools to interact with her children and helped her set a good example. "When my daughters see me going to Sacramento," she said, "they're proud of me. They see me doing something with myself, not just sitting at home at 50, watching novelas."

California Child Care Cuts Already Hurting the Yniguez Family

2010-10-22T21:24:33Z

Editor's Note: The Los Angeles Times published an editorial earlier this week outlining how cuts for 60,000 child care spots wasn't going to save the State of California any money. On the one hand, the cut doesn't add to the state budget reserve. On the other, many of the affected families won't be able to either pay for child care or keep their jobs, so they'll just have to ask the state for public assistance again.

This is the story of one of the affected families. Mrs. Yniguez' child care provider has already been told that she's unlikely to get paid by the state for October child care, a month earlier than the expected cutoff. The Yniguez family is paying the $200 per week they can afford, for now, and they will owe their provider another $760 per week for every week that she doesn't get paid, until Mrs. Yniguez is forced to give up her job.

My name is Ilene Yniguez and I have seven children from the ages of five months to eleven years old. My husband and I work full time to support our family, but we need help. We are constantly struggling and live from paycheck to paycheck. I was on the stage 3 child care program that was eliminated for working parents.

If I don't get help with child care I am going to be forced to quit my job. Even with a discount from our daycare provider, I have to pay $960 per week for our seven children. I only bring home $791 every two weeks.

It's not worth me working, but if I quit my job, I will not be able to pay my rent or bills. I'm in a lose-lose situation because no matter what I try to do, I will not be capable of supporting my family with our income cut in half.

I have been going in circles as to what to do to get child care. On Thursday I went to apply for welfare but because both my husband and I work full time we do not make the intake qualification of working under 100 hours per month. Even if I wasn't working we would make $200 over the intake limit as well. Our monthly bring home is only $4,230 for a family of nine.

As of October 1st, we are being charged for child care until the end of the month when the program is officially over. I have to pay back $4,032 which I obviously do not have. Plus, I'm most likely going to be forced to quit my job because I can't afford to pay for child care anymore.

What do you expect honest working families to do if they are forced to quit their jobs? Was the purpose of eliminating this program to send everyone back to the welfare line? You are punishing the families who worked hard to stay off welfare and who have been making an honest living by taking away this program. What do you propose now that all these parents will be out of a job because you took away their child care?